


Because I'm Me

by JuniRiceBall



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Genderbending, Genderswap, I don't know how to classify the category, M/M, Multiverse, Requested, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-03-23 08:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 68,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13784034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuniRiceBall/pseuds/JuniRiceBall
Summary: Zen wakes up one morning and finds out that all the other RFA members' genders are reversed. How will he deal, especially when Female Jumin Han turns out to be exactly his type of woman? And how the heck is this other RFA going to survive from Unknown's attacks? Filling out a request for Shiranai Atsune on FF.net!WARNING: unlabeled spoilers for ALL the routes ;;





	1. Zen's Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zen has a nightmare and wakes up to another nightmare!

 

 _If she don't love me_  
_What can I do?_  
_Just put on my best pair of shoes, 'cause_  
_I'm me_  
_Cause she said, "he's the one_  
_That drill the charms_  
_Honey let's go wrong"_  
_I just want to know, what's wrong with me_  
_Being in-love with you_

Zen woke up with a dry mouth, a heaving gasp, and sweat all over his body.

Red eyes adjusted to the darkness of his room. The digital clock in his room read 3:05 AM. It was nowhere near the time he had to wake up.

"Crap." Based on the way his bed was rumpled, he probably had a bad dream. For the life of him he couldn't remember what it was clearly. There was… someone beautiful in his dream. Beautiful dark eyes, a frown. The rest of her features forgotten, except for the overwhelming emotion of loss in the pit of his chest. In the scene she was mouthing something to him soundlessly, and then he was sucked into the void of forgetting…

He shook his head and slapped his face gently. He went to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water and chugged that down. Instinctively, as he stood trying to recover, he unlocked his phone and logged on to the messenger.

 

 

 _ZEN entered the chatroom._  
707: So invest now in the SEVENSTAR drink! Available in your local 7-11 stores nationwide!  
MC: Goddess Seven! You are the shining star of business! Please take all my money~!  
ZEN: Hi guys.  
MC: Welcome, Zen! Why are you up so early?  
707: And here's another sleepless and satisfied customer!  
ZEN: No way;;;  
ZEN: Don't listen to that guy, MC. And don't trust in whatever experimental thing he's doing  
ZEN: He's a great hacker but  
ZEN: He's running on pure caffeine and Honey Butter Chip for brain fuel  
MC: ….  
707: ….?  
ZEN: ….?  
MC: You okay Zen?  
ZEN: I had a bad dream and it's hard to fall asleep again  
MC: Oh. Is that why you're kinda disoriented?  
ZEN: Yeah I guess so  
ZEN But I'm recovering though  
ZEN: I just drank water  
707: … MC, let me make it clear that this is an unprecedented side effect of the SEVENSTAR drink  
707: Postmarketing reports showed varied results in memory and cognitive function  
MC: Oh no!  
707: We'll have to up the dosage of caffeine for this one  
707: Zen, we'll have to send you for the lab for further testing  
MC: Right, right! Will there be giant hamster wheels involved?  
707: Yes of course that's standard procedure hehe

 

 

 _These two are flirting again in that weird way,_ Zen grumbled to himself. _And at three in the morning too._ Just when he thought he was over MC choosing Seven, these thoughts come crashing in at the most inopportune time.

 

 

ZEN: ;;;  
ZEN: You guys -_- I just had a nightmare okay  
MC: Sorry dude hehe  
MC: Wanna tell us all about it?  
ZEN: …?  
ZEN: MC, you never called me dude before lol  
ZEN: It's weird  
MC: …?  
707: Duly noted  
707: Disorientation in 7%  
ZEN: LIKE I SAID  
ZEN: I didn't take your drink, Seven  
ZEN: BTW what's with your icons  
ZEN: NVM I know Seven cosplays all the time but  
ZEN: MC, who's that guy in your icon?

 

 

He didn't notice it at first upon logging in the messenger for the first time, but it was unmistakable. MC's profile photo was of a good-looking guy with longish hair tied in a man-bun. Familiar amber coloured eyes peered back at Zen as he stared at the screen. Meanwhile, Seven's was of himself in a fairy girl cosplay-he must have done a better job at Photoshopping it, since his face was smaller and cuter in the photo.

Automatically, Zen's reasoning took a turn for the worse.

 

 

MC: Um...;; what do u mean dude  
ZEN: Did you  
ZEN: get a new  
MC: …?  
ZEN: … I can't say it  
MC: Um  
MC: I've never changed my avatar, Zen  
MC: Are you sure you're okay?

 

 

Zen squinted at the screen. He rubbed his eyes repeatedly. When that didn't work, he opened the lights in the kitchen and made sure that he was seeing things clearly.

Next, he looked at his calendar. It was nowhere near April 1st. Nowhere near his birthday. Unless people were being unnecessarily cruel, there was something definitely wrong…

 

 

ZEN: … you guys aren't pulling another one of your pranks are you  
707: Not me  
707: I'm always serious  
ZEN: ;;;  
ZEN: MC, you're always on my side right  
ZEN: Tell me what's going on  
MC: Um  
MC: Me and Seven are just fooling around;;; I had a hard time sleeping and she was up too, so...  
MC: and… that's it?

_Jae-jin Kang has entered the chatroom_

__  
MC: Welcome, Jae-jin!  
Jae-jin Kang: Good evening, everyone.  
Jae-jin Kang: Or should I say, good morning.  
707: Are you still in the office? Lol  
Jae-jin Kang: *sigh*  
Jae-jin Kang: Ms. Han thought up of another cat project on top of the cat hotels project  
MC: Be strong, Jae-jin  
707: What did Jina think up of this time?  
707: *excited*  
MC: Wait! Don't tell me! It's the Kitten Amusement Park, right?  
Jae-jin Kang: ...  
Jae-jin Kang: How did you know? You must be psychic, MC.  
707: I may have secretly sent her an email about a cat park in the US lol  
Jae-jin Kang: ... so  
Jae-jin Kang: I should have known that it's your fault  
707: Will my handsome Elly be the face of this new project too?!  
Jae-jin Kang: Lucille…  
Jae-jin Kang: I don't want to talk about cats while Zen is in the chatroom;;  
Jae-jin Kang: Zen—I just glanced at the chatroom just now  
Jae-jin Kang: Are you all right?  
ZEN: ….  
ZEN: … am I having a stroke  
ZEN: Why are you all guys  
Jae-jin Kang: Do we need to take you to the hospital?  
ZEN: What's going on  
ZEN: Jaehee, what's with that weird name  
Jae-jin Kang:…  
707: …  
Jae-jin Kang: Um. I'm not sure who Jaehee is…?  
Jae-jin Kang: Did you mean me?  
MC: !  
MC: You don't sound okay Zen  
MC: Jae-jin! Goddess Seven! Please send an ambulance to his house!  
707: I'm on it  
ZEN: Wait, that's a bit;;  
Jae-jin Kang: We have to make sure that you indeed are not suffering from a stroke or a seizure  
Jae-jin Kang: That new role you had in Hair Gel the musical really burned you out  
Jae-jin Kang: I'll contact Ms. Han as well  
Jae-jin Kang: We will need her recommendation for the best neurologist to see you  
_Jae-jin Kang left the chatroom._  
ZEN: No! I don't need that trust fund jerk  
ZEN: And you guys really took this joke too far  
ZEN: Good execution, especially you, Seven  
ZEN: even going as far as changing the stickers  
707: Ummmmmmmmmmm  
707: You didn't really take the SEVENSTAR drink, did you…?  
ZEN: I bet it's Jumin Han's idea isn't it  
ZEN: He really wants to make an effort to make a fool outta me  
MC: Hurry up, Seven!  
707: Right. Gotcha.  
_707 left the chatroom_  
MC: … Zen,  
MC: It's going to be okay  
MC: Don't go to sleep yet okay?  
MC: We're here for you  
ZEN: ;;;  
ZEN: I'm not dying or anything okay  
ZEN: Wait, there's lights outside the room  
MC: That must be the ambulance

 

 

Zen closed the messenger app and looked outside. Blue and red lights littered the night sky. He rushed to his living room. The paramedics had already made their way inside by the time he got there.

"What? You actually broke in?" he said in wonder.

"Sorry, Mr. Ryu. We are affiliated with C&R. Chief Assistant Kang gave us instructions," said the biggest of them, showing his ID. Zen was barely able to register what the ID said before he was forced to sit down on his couch. Within the next few seconds, someone was shining a light into his eyes, his blood pressure and pulses were checked in one arm, while someone else was lifting up his shirt and placing ECG leads.

"Yeah, my name's Hyun Ryu. People call me Zen. I'm 24 years old. Birthday's April 1st. It's… it's February 24, isn't it…?" Zen hated stammering, but the way the paramedic regarded him made him nervous.

"Hmm. Do you feel strange in any way, Mr. Ryu?" He scribbled a bunch of notes on a sheet of paper with a scrutinizing look on his face.

"Well… I had a nightmare, but nothing out of the ordinary. That happens from time to time." The actor thought it was best not to delve too deeply into his prophetic dreams—doctors may have no use for things like that.

"What time did you sleep? And what time did you wake up?"

"Er… around midnight up to 3 AM, I think. Look, I'm sorry for wasting your time, sir—"

"Doctor."

"Doctor, but I'm okay. I know you guys are in on it. But this prank has gone way too far. Geez, that jerk even went so far as to hire actors to get into my head!"

The doctor and the other paramedics glanced at each other with a curious look on their faces. "I assure you, Mr. Ryu, we are a real medical team. We should take you to the hospital this instant. I do not want to alarm you, but you might be having a stroke—"

"Huh? That's impossible—"

"… and we might have enough time to reverse the symptoms. We need to have you admitted and do a brain scan. Is your immediate family around?"

"No, they're not." An uneasy feeling began forming at the pit of his stomach. As he said it, he heard a speeding car screech to a halt outside his house.

"Don't worry, Dr. Lim. I'll sign all the forms necessary for Mr. Ryu."

An unfamiliar feminine voice spoke from behind the doctor. Zen wasn't able to see the source of it immediately, but it was full and rounded and almost dripping with authority. Automatically, he sat up in attention.

"Ms. Han," said the doctor, bowing respectfully.

Zen's jaw almost dropped to the floor upon looking at her. She was tall—could probably look Zen in the eye—and with her arms crossed over her chest, her figure was imposing. Her fair skin almost glowed impossibly under the yellowing light of the old fluorescent bulbs in his living room. Her long, dark hair fell like silk around her shoulders and up to the small of her back. And her eyes…

As they fell on his surprised eyes, her charcoal-black eyes regarded him with that annoyingly familiar aloof gaze.

For some reason, Zen was sure of it. Even though his head was spinning and his brain was probably dying, he was sure to the very core of his bones that this woman was Jumin Han.

"How is he?" Female Jumin asked.

"His vital signs are fine, and we do not see any focal problems as of now. He seems to have a hard time grasping the situation though. We will need an MRI to make sure that nothing's wrong."

"I see. Bring him to SoKor General. Now."

"Right away, Ms. Han."

"W-wait!" Before Zen knew it, he was lifted off his butt from the couch to an awaiting stretcher. "D-don't just strap me in here like I'm insane, you trust fund jerk!"

Female Jumin peered at him and put a delicately manicured finger to her chin. "Hm. It's usually _trust fund bitch,_ isn't it, Zen?"

"Huh? What?"

With the same infuriatingly unaffected gaze, the woman asked him, "What's my name?"

Zen frowned. "You're… Jumin Han… aren't you…? Or at least, some woman pretending to be that jerk… Wait, could you be his sister…?"

The woman frowned. "Dr. Lim. Let's hurry up. Remember that this man is an important asset to my company. Understand?"

"Understood." The doctor nodded and barked out some other commands to the paramedics, who then proceeded to load Zen into the back of the ambulance like he was a precious crate of eggs.

She snapped her fingers in the next moment. "Assistant Kang. Contact the security service and make sure that not a word of this gets out to the local media. Contact the theatre troop as well and make sure that they don't go peeking around the hospital and asking too many questions."

A taller man clad in a dark business suit who escaped Zen's attention before stood behind Female Jumin and nodded. "Understood, Ms. Han. Zen, everything's going to be all right." As he turned around to make a hundred phone calls, the actor was able to register this Assistant Kang's light brown hair, the familiar flash of his glasses, and the silent, dignified way he carried himself.

 _… Jaehee's pretty good-looking as a man,_ he thought blankly, _and Jumin is…_

As soon as the ambulance drove noisily into the quiet city streets, Zen shook his head vehemently. He might be sick in the head, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Shiranai Atsune's request was Zen/fem!Jumin. I've never done a genderbending fic before so this should be fun :D  
> Title is inspired by The Avalanche's "Because I'm Me"-I'm interested to see how to make the song fit the story lol


	2. Yeah It's Not Just A Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zen realizes that all of this real~

_YOOKYUNG <3 has entered the chatroom.  
MC has entered the chatroom._

__  
YOOKYUNG <3: MC  
YOOKYUNG<3: - weep-  
YOOKYUNG<3: What happened to Zen?  
MC: Jae-jin and Jina brought him to the hospital  
MC: Jae-jin says the MRI’s normal. His sugar’s a little low but  
MC: Even when they corrected it, he isn’t back to normal  
YOOKYUNG<3: I hope he’s ok  
YOOKYUNG<3: I didn’t really understand what happened in the other chatroom;;  
YOOKYUNG<3: he was calling Jae-jin and Jina weird names  
MC: yeah…  
MC: he seemed surprised about my avatar too ;;  
MC: I knew the man bun was weird  
YOOKYUNG<3: It’s cute on you oppa ^^  
YOOKYUNG<3: I’m really worried about Zen.

  
_Jina Han entered the chatroom._

 __  
YOOKYUNG <3: Unnie!  
YOOKYUNG<3:  How’s Zen?  
Jina Han: He’s still the same.  
Jina Han: Lacking in the head department  
Jina Han: but the rest of his body seems to be fine.  
YOOKYUNG<3: that’s so mean ;;  
YOOKYUNG<3: so he’s still confused?  
Jina Han: He still keeps calling me names  
Jina Han: like ‘trust fund jerk’ and ‘CEO-in-line’  
Jina Han: and ‘Jumin Han’  
MC: Yikes  
YOOKYUNG<3: so he still thinks you’re a guy?  
YOOKYUNG<3: even when he saw you in person?  
Jina Han: apparently so  
Jina Han: he has been accusing me of being this Jumin Han’s sister  
Jina Han: I don’t have any siblings that I know of  
Jina Han: I’d have to ask father about that, I suppose  
MC: … you don’t need to do that ^^’  
MC: So what else do we need to do?  
Jina Han: Dr. Lim has recommended further observation  
MC: But what about Hair Gel?  
YOOKYUNG<3: Yeah  
YOOKYUNG<3: That was his big break  
Jina Han: No musicals.  
Jina Han: At least until he gets reoriented.  
YOOKYUNG<3: poor Zen ;;  
YOOKYUNG<3: but at least you were there super fast even when it was like 3 in the morning.  
YOOKYUNG<3: you must really like him, Unnie  
YOOKYUNG<3: -blush-  
MC: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
Jina Han: MC, how did you do that…?  
Jina Han: Regardless  
Jina Han: It was Assistant Kang who told me the situation  
Jina Han: I was already awake because Elliot 3rd needed to take his medicine.  
Jina Han: It was not difficult for me to respond to the call.  
MC: right, right  
MC: so are you still in the hospital?  
Jina Han: yes. Assistant Kang is watching over him at bedside.

  
_Jae-jin Kang has entered the chatroom._

 __  
Jae-jin Kang: Ms. Han.  
Jae-jin Kang: And Yoo-kyung and MC.  
Jae-jin Kang: Good morning.  
MC: Jae-jin! How’s Zen doing?  
Jae-ji n Kang: he’s stable. But still confused.  
Jae-jin Kang: he keeps calling me ‘Jaehee’ and seems to be blaming Ms. Han over his condition.  
Jae-jin Kang: except that he still refers to her as ‘Jumin Han’.  
YOOKYUNG <3: That’s so weird!  
MC: Can a stroke really do that?  
Jae-jin Kang: even if it did  
Jae-jin Kang: we don’t have evidence of anything wrong with his brain  
Jina Han: His behaviour has always been evidence enough.  
Jae-jin Kang: -sigh-  
Jae-jin Kang: Anyway, Ms. Han. I came in to tell you that Dr. Lim wants to give us an update on his condition.  
Jae-jin Kang: I would also like to ask permission to leave, since it’s almost time for me to come to work.  
Jina Han: Understood.  
Jina Han: Cancel my morning meeting with the Chairman.  
Jina Han: I shall watch over Zen for the meantime.  
MC: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
Jina Han: …  
Jina Han: Somebody needs to be here in case they have to operate.  
Jae-jin Kang: Understood.  
Jina Han: I’ll see you in a few minutes.

  
_Jina Han has left the chatroom.  
Jae-jin Kang has left the chatroom._

 __  
YOOKYUNG <3: I’ve never seen Jina so worried before.  
MC: Right?  
YOOKYUNG<3: anyways, MC, let’s go visit Zen at the hospital later!  
MC: Sure. After your classes  
YOOKYUNG<3: ;; I don’t wanna go~  
MC: Yookyung Kim  
MC: Take your classes seriously  
YOOKYUNG<3: ugh fine  
YOOKYUNG<3: just ‘cause Zen’s hospitalised  
YOOKYUNG<3: doesn’t mean u get to nag me in his place  
MC: someone has to lol  
YOOKYUNG<3: I don’t see why I should bother with college  
YOOKYUNG<3: I’m gonna be a housewife anyway  
MC: I thought you wanted to take an internship under Jina?  
YOOKYUNG<3: ehhh~  
YOOKYUNG<3: don’t’remind her of that please  
YOOKYUNG<3: anyways I’ll text you later MC  
YOOKYUNG<3: LOLOL awaits me  
MC: sure. I should sleep too.  
MC: good night!  
YOOKYUNG<3: good night Oppa!

  
_YOOKYUNG <3 has left the chatroom. _  
_MC has left the chatroom._

 

 

Zen flinched as another nurse stabbed him with a needle, this time at the tip of his finger. They placed drops of his blood onto a strip and plunged this into the machine. “Your blood sugar’s 124 mg/dl.”

“Is that normal?” The nurse nodded. “So will you guys let me go home already?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Ryu. We still need to observe you,” she said bashfully, averting her gaze. “I’m… I’m sorry. It’s just that… you’re really good looking…” The entire time that she was in the room, her face was pink and she was trying in vain not to stare at his face for too long. Zen was used to it. In fact, it brought him relief that whatever was happening to him didn’t seem to have affected his physical beauty in any way.

“That’s enough, Nurse. Thank you for your help.” Male Jaehee audibly sighed as he typed some things onto his phone. Peering over his broad shoulder, Zen could see that he was chatting on the messenger. He logged off discreetly before turning to face Zen. “Does anything hurt?”

“No, I’m telling you, Jaehee, I’m fine,” sighed Zen. “I’m probably in the wrong dimension right now, but I’m fine. My brain is clear and I’m pretty sure I’m not insane.”

The tall assistant looked at him with concerned, soft brown eyes behind clear glasses. Yes, that’s the Jaehee he knew. If only this guy would turn into a girl the next second so that he could stop questioning his sanity. “I’m sorry Zen, I’m sure you’re not all right. And please call me Jae-jin. I do not know who this Jaehee is.”

“It’s you! You’re Jaehee! You’ve been working with that jerk Jumin Han, the director of C&R, for the past two years!” cried Zen in frustration. “We planned all those parties for the RFA, we talk everyday on the messenger... I know all about the cat projects and how you’ve always supported me in my musicals, and how much you like coffee! I’m right, aren’t I? You’re really… you’re really Jaehee, aren’t you?”

The male Jaehee pushed up his glasses up the bridge of his nose and turned to him. An unmistakable layer of sadness was evident in his voice when he spoke. “Most of what you’ve said is true, Zen. But I’m not Jaehee, and Ms. Han has always been Ms. Han for as long as I can remember.”

As if on cue, the door opened, and in walked the beautiful woman from before. Her charcoal eyes fell on his red ones. For some reason his cheeks felt warm. “Assistant Kang. I’m here to relieve you of watching over Zen.”

Jaehee—or Jae-jin, as he was called in this universe—bowed slightly. “Dr. Lim should be here shortly.”

“It’s fine. I spoke to him outside. I know about the situation.”

“I see. Then, I must go.”

“Thank you. See you in the afternoon.” The male assistant took one last look at Zen, worry clear in his brown eyes, before leaving the hospital room.

Zen grunted in frustration. “Great. It’s me and the trust fund jerk again, huh.”

“Trust fund _bitch._ ” Female Jumin made her way to the seat next to Zen’s bed and sat there, her back straight and her dark eyes without a hint of exhaustion in them. He felt some admiration as he looked at her. “You’ve called me that for the past years that you’ve known me, Zen. I do not understand why you should change it now.”

Zen forced himself to look at her once more, looking for any signs that this cold woman could be the cold jerk that he knew from the day before. Her face was stern, but her features were small and delicate; her eyes were wider, the black irises shining like ebony; her hair was the same shade of black that it was when she was a guy, but it was very long and shiny and silky and most definitely not a wig.

 _Maybe I should touch it to make sure…?_ The image of his pale hand caressing her hair and her face tenderly suddenly flashed in his mind.

Zen mentally kicked himself in the leg for thinking that.

She crossed her arms over her chest—the movement hid the bit of her silk blouse that was popping open over the swell of her breasts. “Still as rude as ever, I see. For how long are you going to keep gawking at me like a fool?”

“You jerk!” Just hearing her voice sprouted familiar feelings of annoyance inside his chest. “Give me a break, all right? I’m having trouble gauging reality here!”

Female Jumin tilted her head to one side in curiosity before opening that wretched mouth once more. “I’ve always thought that you were slightly detached from reality, Zen. It was only a matter of time before you were pushed to the deep end, yet I can’t fathom what the trigger is.”

Zen felt his face turning red in fury. “You’re still Jumin Han, all right. Still with a stick up your butt. You didn’t even give Jaehee—I mean, Jae-jin the day off even though he was working overtime for your cat project and…”

“And even though he spent all morning watching over you,” said the woman. She sighed. “It’s his choice to do that since he values you as a friend and as his idol. Henceforth, it is not related to work and should not affect his work in any way. It’s the same as me, too.”

“You’re skipping work, though.”

“I have more freedom to do that as a director,” she said without a hint of conceit in her voice, which made Zen’s blood boil all the more. “I have more obligation to watch over you, though, since I was the one who signed the consent forms as your legal guardian.”

The silver-haired man raised his eyebrows. “You did? But I could have done that…”

“Of course not. You were blabbering nonsense names and acting very hostile. You obviously did not have the capacity to make any decisions.”

“Still, that’s—“ began Zen, when the door opened once more.

A beautiful woman peered in from the doorway, her mint eyes slightly unfocused. Her shoulder-length mint green hair was neatly tied in a ponytail that she cradled over one shoulder. “This is Hyun’s room, isn’t it?” she said with the gentlest voice that Zen’s ever heard.

“Jihye,” called out Female Jumin. “You made it.”

Once more, Zen kept his jaw from dropping. The woman called Jihye slowly made her way in. She carefully held a cane in one hand as she stood at the foot of his bed. “I can’t believe that you’re in the hospital again, Hyun… I had hoped that your motorcycle accident was the last one.”

“… V?!” Zen almost fell from his bed in shock. “You… you’re a girl too…?!”

Female V tilted her head in curiosity and gazed at Female Jumin, who was rolling her eyes. “I am. At least I think I am. I am a girl, aren’t I, Jina?”

“Yes, for as long as I’ve known you,” replied the businesswoman.

The mint-haired woman looked once more at Zen. “You don’t seem to have any broken bones this time, thank goodness. But how are you feeling?”

Zen swallowed. “I… you’re really V? Is this part of the joke?”

“Er…” Female V gave an uneasy glance at Female Jumin, who only shook her head sternly. “You seem to remember me, right, Hyun? Can you tell me about the time we first met?”

“You mean when I first met Jihyun Kim and Rika, right?” began Zen. “It was during one of my earliest musicals. Rika went backstage and gave me flowers, and you were there… you guys invited me to the RFA, but I didn’t join until you—I mean, Jihyun—rescued me from that motorcycle accident…”

“Rika…?” Once more, the older women glanced at each other. “It’s interesting to see that you’ve got most of the details right… except I don’t know who this Rika woman or who Jihyun Kim is.”

“What…?”

The Female Jumin looked at him with those piercing eyes once more and said, “RFA had always stood for Ryung’s Fundraising Association. Well, for as long as anyone of us remember, anyway.”

“Ryung…? Who the heck is that?!” stammered Zen.

“Er… he was my fiancé,” answered V, in an uncharacteristically low voice. “I… I don’t know if you remember, Hyun, but… he committed suicide about half a year ago…”

As she spoke, she gingerly took out her own smart phone and carefully scrolled through her photo albums, keeping the screen at a curious distance from her eyes. When she found the photo in question, she held this up to Zen’s face, who once more found himself with his mouth agape.

It was a photo of all of them at the last RFA party, which was held two Christmases ago. It was exactly the photo that Zen remembered, except that instead of Jumin and V, the two women in the room were staring back at him, beautiful and sparkling in their gowns. Jaehee—or Jae-jin was there too, looking obviously tired but was all smiles in the photo. There were also two other girls in the photo, one with bleached blonde hair wearing a cocktail dress, and another one with fiery red hair with glasses and a green shirt over dress pants. Zen appeared then as he remembered, looking as gorgeous as ever, and he stood next to a tall, bright-eyed guy with short blonde hair and a big smile.

“Wha…? This is… why are Yoosung and Seven girls too…? And Rika’s a guy…?”

He barely noticed Female Jumin taking the phone out of his line of sight and giving it back to Female V. The mint-haired woman did not look less worried as she set her phone aside.

“I see. I can understand now why you and Jae-jin are so worried,” said Female V. She then broke out into a serene smile, the most comforting one that she could muster. “But it’s good that you’re here for Zen, Jina. I think that he’ll be okay as long as you’re here.”

Zen felt the room spinning once more. Everything—the women in the room, the stories, the photo—finally convinced him that this wasn’t all a prank.

“I need to lie down…” he heard himself mumble. The sounds meshed and whirred around his head, and the lights above him suddenly blurred. V’s voice sounded distant in the background as she called for a nurse.

“Zen. Look at me. Deep breaths.”

For a split second, he _swore_ he heard Jumin’s voice—the real Jumin Han that he knew, and not the disconcertingly beautiful woman that he met hours before. He glanced up and saw his face, his brows knitted in concern. He hated to admit it, but seeing Jumin’s face so close, the pacing of his own breath keeping time with his, calmed him down considerably.

“Zen… it’s time to wake up,” he heard him say, his voice strangely disembodied and distant.

Eventually, as his breathing slowed and his vision returned, he saw that the familiar businessman was a businesswoman once more. Her raven eyes peered into his with full force.

“Are you okay, Zen?”

“J-jumin… I don’t know what’s going on,” he said weakly.

The woman frowned. Zen didn’t notice it before, but she was holding his hand as she tried to calm him down. She tightened its grip considerably. The same nurse from before rushed in, took his vital signs, shone a light into his pupils, and said some things to Female Jumin in a low voice.

Zen felt exhausted and laid his head back and closed his eyes. Maybe if he fell asleep, he’d find out that everything was a crazy dream. It would be something to share to the messenger, at least. He didn’t care if Seven and Yoosung laughed in his face forever. He just wanted to wake up.

These were the last thoughts he had before drifting into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I could draw so I could show you all how they look like in my head


	3. Perhaps I Was Too Hasty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zen isn't better but they start to have an inkling of what could be happening. Meanwhile, Ms. Han is driven into a corner!

_707 has entered the chatroom._  
MC has entered the chatroom.  
  
707: Hey MC  
707: Have you gone to visit Zen yet?  
MC: I’m on my way… I’m on the train  
MC: I’m supposed to meet Yookyung there  
MC: But she isn’t replying;;  
707: lol she was online in LOLOL a minute ago  
MC: That girl…!!!  
MC: I’ll call her and give her a piece of my mind later.  
MC: You wanna come with us, Seveny?  
707: I’d love to, but  
707: Marcus Vanderwood 3 rd isn’t letting me out of my house ;_;  
MC: Oh. Your butler again huh  
707: Ya  
MC: what kinda butler is he anyway  
707: he’s very manly  
707: and he nags me like a mom  
707: and he stinks of cigarettes like all the time  
MC: he doesn’t sound like a butler at all  
MC: I’m jealous –grumpy-  
707: lololol  
707: you’re funny MC  
707: he only cleans up my stuff here anyways  
  
_Jina Han has entered the chatroom._  
  
Jina Han: Seven. MC.  
MC: Hey Jina!  
MC: Are you still in the hospital? Is Zen okay?  
Jina Han: He just had a panic attack.  
707: -gasp-  
MC: Oh no :(  
Jina Han: He’s okay now, though he still calls me Jumin.  
Jina Han: V visited as well, and he kept calling her Jihyun.  
Jina Han: and he alluded to a woman called ‘Rika,’ but he seems to be pertaining to Ryung.  
Jina Han: do you know of any group that Zen might have been a part of with those characters?  
MC: Nope… although I’ve only known Zen for a short while  
707: nope!  
707: I reviewed all my files re: Zen  
707: nothing like that comes up  
707: weird  
707: maybe he’s from another universe or something lol  
Jina Han: I must say that this is getting more and more worrisome.  
MC: The doctors didn’t say anything?  
Jina Han: Nothing conclusive.  
Jina Han: They might do other procedures but they want to finish the 24 hours observation first.  
707: Poor Zenny T_T  
707: I’m just glad that he didn’t really drink the SEVENSTAR drink  
707: my conscience just couldn’t take it  
Jina Han: just to be on the safe side  
Jina Han: I had Assistant Kang pull out all stocks of the SEVENSTAR drink from the C &R affiliated convenience stores.  
707: NOOOOOOO  
707: WHYYYYYYYY  
707: I WAS GONNA BUY A NEW BABY CAR  
Jina Han: We can’t risk anyone having brain damage  
Jina Han: this whole incident with Zen makes me feel uneasy.  
MC: There there Jina.  
MC: He’ll be better  
MC: He’ll recover faster since you’re taking good care of him <3  
Jina Han: …  
707: So sweet  
707: I’m blushing  
Jina Han: I don’t understand  
Jina Han: I’m not a doctor  
Jina Han: I doubt my proximity to him will make him recover faster  
Jina Han: I worry that it has the opposite effect, to be honest.  
MC:  Don’t say that!  
MC: Im sure that Zen will appreciate it too  
MC: once he snaps out of it  
707: ya  
MC: Anyways, I’m close.  
MC: I’ll see you guys in a bit, Jina.  
Jina Han: Right.  
Jina Han: I’ll log off for a while, too.  
707: Regards to Zenny~ I hope he gets better soon!  
707: I’ll get back to work before Marcus Vanderwood 3rd murders me  
MC: See ya!  
  
_MC has left the chatroom._  
Jina Han has left the chat room.  
707 has left the chatroom. 

Jina Han watched as Zen slept. He had been out cold for the past 1 hour, 27 minutes, and 13 seconds. She thought it was ridiculous that she had already spent 6 hours, 17 minutes, and 15 seconds of her morning watching over him when her sweet prince, Elliot 3rd, was also sick with a cold.

Not to mention that Zen fell asleep holding her hand. She had had to send her messages and answer phone calls from work with her non-dominant hand. After all that mess with him calling her ‘Jumin’ over and over again, she expected herself to be more annoyed with him. But for the first time in her life, she felt genuinely _worried_ about him. And apart from the uncomfortable pins-and-needles sensation crawling up her arm from sustaining the position for too long, she curiously found the warmth of his hand rather… comforting, if she allowed herself to be selfish.

 _Perhaps it’s comforting for him as well,_ she reasoned to herself, as she observed him stir slightly in his sleep when she first attempted to take her hand back. _I suppose I should continue this. He’s very sick, after all._

A soft knock resounded from the door, followed by a familiar brown head peeking through the opening. “Hey, _noona_ ~”

“Hello, MC.”

It was still odd for her to see MC out of Ryung’s old apartment, and she felt that strange, warm feeling erupting over her chest as she watched him move. His long hair was tied up in a bun at the back of his head, and his tall, lean frame was clad in a simple, tasteful white sweater and jeans outfit. His amber eyes glowed when he met her eyes. “Oh… sorry, _noona_. Am I disturbing…?”

“What…? Oh, no,” she said, instinctively glaring at Zen as she said it. “It’s just that he fell asleep like this after his panic attack.”

A knowing smile crept over MC’s face. “You know, you could let him go at anytime.”

“I tried, but he’d wake up,” she replied matter-of-factly, not appreciating MC’s smile at all, as attractive as it was. “And patients who are sick in the brain need to sleep, don’t they?”

“I suppose so. You say so many mean things about Zenny but you really are a nice person, Jina.” MC placed a plastic bag on Zen’s table, and the smell of sweet sauce and fried protein wafted over her nostrils. “Anyways, I got him wings. He’d probably hate me for not bringing a salad or something, but he needs a lot of protein to recover.”

Jina tilted her head in curiosity. “Then why not buy a whole chicken? Do you people really spend money on just the wings?”

MC laughed. “Sorry, _noona_ , I forgot you’re not used to these kinds of things. Chicken wings are delicious and not as expensive as the food you’re used to.”

“Hm. Interesting. I’d like to try the types of food that you eat as well.”

Another knock, and a familiar bleached-blonde head peeked through the doorway. “ _Unnie_ ~! _Oppa_ ~! I made it!” The college student, with her hair up in a high ponytail and her bangs held by a row of barrettes, bounced in the room and stopped when her purple eyes fell on Jina and Zen’s hands. “Um. Am I disturbing…?”

MC stifled a giggle, while Jina frowned once more. “No. He fell asleep like this after his panic attack. I’m afraid I’m stuck like this until he wakes up.”

“Okay~! MC, can I have some wings too? I’m starving~!”

“Sure, as long as you leave some for Zen.”

“He’s just gonna look for salad, anyway. I should know. I’ve been to his apartment a couple of times,” said Yookyung, puffing her cheeks in annoyance. She practically had stars in her eyes when she opened up the box of wings. Jina wrinkled her nose as the smell of cheap oil wafted to her nostrils, and she looked away as Yookyung gobbled through each piece.

“You’re a girl, and you went to his apartment by yourself?” asked the businesswoman.

“Uh-huh,” said Yookyung, with sauce staining her cheeks. “He’s super harmless, _unnie_. He usually talks about ‘the beast inside’ or something but he tells me that I don’t have any appeal at all so I shouldn’t worry. He’s more like a mom than anything.”

“Yeah. No need for you to worry about those two, Jina,” said MC, with that smile on his face again.

“… I don’t think I ever expressed worry about these two,” she replied. She felt Zen stirring in his sleep, and instinctively, she let his hand go like a hot potato.

Zen mumbled something in his sleep. His eyes fluttered open, revealing those disconcerting red eyes. His eyes fell on her, and he was barely able to mask a profanity from his mouth. “Shit. I’m still in this dimension, huh.”

“You’re still insane, I see,” quipped Jina. “Don’t be rude. You have guests.”

“It’s okay, _noona_ , don’t rush him,” said MC awkwardly. When he spoke, Zen turned to look at them and almost fell off the bed again. Jina wondered absently when the surprised look on his face will get old.

“MC? Yoosung? Oh no, you guys really are different,” he said, despair plain in his voice.

“Yoosung…?” The college girl tilted her head curiously before turning her head to MC. “I guess I _could_ be a Yoosung if I were a boy, huh, oppa?”

MC shrugged. “It’s too manly for a cute girl like you, I think.”

“Yeah. Geez, _oppa,_ ” grumbled Yookyung, shooting Zen with an annoyed glare. “I don’t really get what happened to you. Why do you keep calling us these weird names?”

“Because!” Zen began, appearing on the verge of freaking out once more. “This isn’t how the world is! It’s supposed to be Rika’s Fundraising Association, with V and Jumin and Jaehee and Seven and Yoosung and MC and me! Argh, why is everyone different while I’m the same? God, is this punishment for being too beautiful? Why??!!”

“… well, at least his narcissism is still intact,” said MC softly.

“Maybe he’s from another dimension!” piped up Yookyung.

“Another dimension?”

“Yup. Have you ever heard about the Multiverse Theory, MC _oppa_?”

MC tilted his head to one side. “Wait. This is the one where there’s an infinite number of alternate universes in existence, right?”

“Right, right,” said Yookyung, nodding sagely. “In theory, there may be one or more universes with different realities. Like, there might be a reality where _oppa_ never makes it to Ryung’s apartment. Or worse, you meet Unknown before you meet us. Or even a different reality where you fall for a girl other than Seven. And maybe there’s also an alternate reality that Zen _oppa_ is saying, where we have different names and genders.”

MC laughed awkwardly. “I suppose—although I can’t imagine a world without Seveny, that’s for sure.”

Jina ignored the twinge in her chest as he said that. Yookyung puffed her cheeks in annoyance before continuing. “Cheeseball. Anyways, some people say that it’s possible for some people to cross-over realities. Like, drugs or magic hourglasses or something. But they’re not sure how or why it happens.”

Zen was staring at her with his red eyes wide open. “That’s it! That must be what happened to me! There’s no other way…”

“W-ell…” the college girl scratched the back of her head uneasily. “I guess it’s possible…? But I’m not sure. I just read these things on the message boards in _16Chan._ ”

“Did you take drugs, Zen? Come to think of it, we’re still waiting on the results of that…” said Jina.

He frowned at her. “No. Well, at least I didn’t take any intentionally.” His sharp, white eyebrows furrowed together. “Wait… did anyone slip in something in my drinks last night…?”

MC, Yookyung, and Jina looked at each other. “From what I remember in the chatrooms, _hyung_ , you had a beer with your theatre troop after last night’s show,” said MC.

“Yep. You took a selfie and everything.” Yookyung had her smart phone out and was browsing through the RFA App’s album. “Here ya go!”

“Yeah…. I remember this too,” mumbled Zen. Jina observed him as he stared at his own face in the photo, with some of the other actors for _Hair Gel_ raising their own mugs of beer in the background. He had a huge grin, and the single glass of beer in his hand was half-full when he took the photo.

“Do you remember who handed out the drinks, Zen?” asked MC.

“Yeah… the director did. He’s right here,” he pointed at the photo, where a middle-aged man was also grinning with his own bottle of beer. Suddenly, something unfamiliar caught his eye.

“Wait… I don’t know who this person is.”

Everyone peered at the screen as Zen used two fingers to zoom in at the photo. The face was blurred, but there was definitely a woman there, with chin-length platinum-white hair with streaks of pink, green eyes that glowed, and a shiny leather jacket.

“Hmm.” Yookyung squinted at the photo. “I’m not too sure, but she’s really pretty…? She kinda looks like Seven, doesn’t she, MC?”

MC wrinkled his nose at the photo. “I dunno… it’s too blurry to tell. Was it a private party, Zen?”

“Yes. We just had drinks and pizza and chicken backstage. There weren’t supposed to be outsiders there.”

“That’s weird!” Yookyung looked up at him with fear in her eyes. “What if this is _oppa_ ’s stalker?!”

Everyone except Jina gasped comically. “Yes, that’s it! This chick must have drugged me! This must be one long drug dream!” Zen turned to Jina, his bright red eyes with an energy that wasn’t there before. “Things can go back to normal! Jumin! When will the results of the drug tests be out? I need to get detoxified!”

“It’s _Jina,”_ she replied sternly. “And the comprehensive drug screening won’t be available until a few hours from now.”

“That’s too long! What if I die within the next few hours from the poison?! And we should catch that stalker before—”

“ _Hyung_ , calm down,” said MC, placing a protective arm over Zen’s shoulder. “I’m sure the doctors in this hospital area doing their best. Jina made sure the best medical staff is watching over you.”

“No, you don’t understand, MC, I don’t belong in this reality!” Zen had a pleading, almost crazed look in his eyes as he shook MC by the shoulders. “It’s just as Yoosung said! Somebody must have given me something and placed my consciousness in the wrong place, and—“

“Zen.” The firmness of her voice was so surprising that he stopped mid-rant. Jina adjusted the cuffs of her sleeves as per her habit and gave him an emotionless stare. “Panicking and getting agitated will not help any of us in this situation. You must remain calm.”

“But—“

“Do not be so emotional.”

“We need to hurry before the stalker—“

“We are acting as quickly as possible.”

“I need to go back—“

“You’re deluded, but you’re in the right place.”

“Are you even listening—“

“Have you listened to the things that are coming out of your mouth, Zen?”

“You…” Zen’s pale skin turned red as soon as the words left Jina’s mouth. “Man or woman, you’re the same as you’ve always been! You don’t care about me, you jerk!”

A sullen silence fell in the room after Zen’s tirade. Yookyung and MC awkwardly chose to look at the floor between them. In her usual deadpan manner, Jina answered him back. “It’s _bitch,_ Zen. Please get it right.”

“… you guys, please don’t fight,” said Yookyung, with tears forming at the corner of her eyes. “ _Oppa_ , please don’t yell at _unnie_ … she’s working super hard so you could get better…”

A look of regret instantly invaded Zen’s features. Well, it’s not like she cared, anyway. Before he could open his mouth to speak again, the silence was broken by a ringing noise from Jina’s designer handbag. Not bothering to look at the haggard actor, she turned around and answered the call. “Jina Han speaking.”

“Ms. Han, this is Assistant Kang,” the familiar voice went. “This is regarding your 12 PM meeting with Chairman Han.”

“The one I told you specifically to cancel, you mean.”

“Yes.” An uneasiness made its way towards his voice. “I apologize profusely, but Chairman Han refused to cancel the meeting. He says that the issue cannot wait any longer.”

“What measures did you do to convince him otherwise?”

“I did say that you had a medical emergency to attend to in the hospital and that perhaps a dinner meeting tonight would suffice. However, he insisted in seeing you at the soonest possible time.”

Jina put two fingers to her temple. She had an inkling of what the so-called “ _meeting”_ will be about, and she _really_ didn’t want to go through with it right now. “I see. So he insists that I still leave for lunch.”

“Well… no,” began Assistant Kang, the uneasiness becoming more apparent. Jina noted that he was huffing and puffing lightly, as if he were rushing up a flight of stairs. “He is in SoKor General as we speak, looking for you. I am on my way as well to assist you during the meeting.”

“… this is quite troublesome, Assistant Kang.”

“Again, I deeply apologize.” She didn’t bother to listen to his next apology and ended the phone call. When she turned around, Zen, MC, and Yookyung were regarding her curiously.

“My father is on his way here,” she said matter-of-factly. “I must take my leave to meet with him.”

“Oh! Chairman Han, huh? Really big time,” said Yookyung, with stars shining in her eyes.

“Indeed,” she said. Sighing, she stood up from her seat. “I must ask the two of you to watch over Zen while I am at the meeting. Kindly contact me or Assistant Kang should any emergency arise. Make sure that he doesn’t hurt himself doing anything silly.”

Zen frowned at this, but didn’t say anything. MC and Yookyung nodded enthusiastically.

However, right as she made her way to the door, it opened. A familiar, dignified older man, with a significantly younger woman clinging on to his arm, stood there dauntingly. The shadows of an army of bodyguards behind them were apparent. The couple, upon seeing Jina, smiled brilliantly. “Director Han. Good morning,” said the man.

“Chairman Han,” said Jina formally. She glanced briefly at the woman on his arm, but made no other move to acknowledge her presence. She felt the other members of the RFA freeze behind her. “I was just on my way to meet with you. I had deemed the conference rooms at the penthouse more appropriate for our meeting.”

“No, no, Jina, that’s fine. We can simply ask the rest of them to leave.” Chairman Han looked meaningfully at MC and Yookyung, who immediately faltered and clumsily left the room while awkwardly bowing their heads.

The Chairman looked at Zen as well, who didn’t immediately move from his spot on the hospital bed. Jina raised her arm, commanding him wordlessly to stay put. “Father, he is a patient here.”

“So he is. Perhaps we can ask the staff to move him to another room.”

“No, let’s not be silly, dear. He _is_ sick, after all,” said the woman on his arm. She looked at Zen with an enticing look on her face. “I for one don’t mind having such a beautiful man in the same room as us.”

Zen awkwardly smiled back and looked meaningfully at Jina, as if mentally telling her to make her and the rest of her entourage leave. She sighed. “Ms. Choi, we are going to have a business related meeting. It would be most proper for me and the Chairman to look for a more private space to talk.”

Glam Choi, of course, was the Chairman’s latest conquest—an actress less than a decade older than Jina who made one or two successful films. A slightly irritated look flashed on her face for a split second before the Chairman spoke again. “It’s fine if we talk here, Jina. It is only indirectly business-related.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. It’s more about our family. And your future.” Chairman Han’s smile grew wider, and he giddily looked at Glam Choi in the eyes. “You know about our upcoming marriage, don’t you?”

“Yes,” the young director said curtly. She easily held her tongue about how quickly his marriages come and go after all these years. Glam Choi was just another woman who will be discarded after less than a year.

“Well, we are indeed happy about it, but Glam had the wonderful idea about sharing the happiness with you!”

Jina frowned at that. She knew this inane meeting would go in this direction.

Glam Choi smiled at her fakely, brilliantly. “Sweetie, I know about those rumours of you liking women instead of men, and I know that they’re just not true. It must be tough being a woman of power, not having time for love and men—“

“I have enough time,” Jina cut in, “And those rumours don’t affect me or my productivity in any way at all.”

“—anyway, honey, you aren’t getting any younger. Your father tells me that you’re turning 28 this year, are you not?”

Jina crossed her arms over her chest and didn’t say anything.

“Dear, it’s time for you to have a family of your own,” said the Chairman pleadingly. “I’m getting older, and the company needs an heir. Before I die, I’d like to see you walking down the aisle.”

“Father, with all due respect,” began Jina, releasing a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding until that time, “This is…”

“No, let us finish, Jina,” said Glam Choi. She then snapped her fingers, and a haggard-looking assistant came and handed Jina a binder. Without changing her facial expression she opened it. It was, as expected, full of various cheesy snapshots of a man who obviously went through multiple plastic surgeries.  

“He’s my student—one of the most brilliant ones I’ve had. His name is Spencer. He’s an up-and-coming businessman, like you,” said Glam Choi, her eyes creasing excitedly.

“… no, I don’t think so,” said Jina, tossing the binder at a nearby table. Glam Choi faltered briefly and looked up questioningly at Chairman Han.

“Now, now, Jina. No need to be rude,” said the Chairman, some sternness leaking into his voice.

“I am sorry, Father, but this is too much.” She straightened her body and looked as imposing as she could get. “I expected to have a meeting with you about our company and nothing else. This is too personal—“

“This _is_ about our company, Jina. Our future. Don’t you understand? You’ll soon be too old to bear children—“

“—and marriage and childbearing should be _my_ choice, Father—“

“—and Glam and I are _assisting_ you in securing your future!” Chairman Han turned red in the face, and his breathing got heavier as he finished his sentence. He adjusted his scarf mindlessly and regained composure. “Look—it’s not like you _have_ many choices, dear. I know about the number of eligible men you rejected in the past. Since you are getting older, I don’t expect those numbers to go up. I encourage you to think about Spencer seriously. It’s for the good of the Han family as well.”

Jina closed her eyes momentarily, trying to control the odd impulse to break something with her hands. “… not many choices, huh…?” she mumbled discreetly.

“What was that, dear?”

She opened her eyes. “I am sorry, Father, but there’s something important I need to tell you, too.”

Chairman Han and Glam Choi watched wordlessly as she strode across the room and sat closely next to Zen, with one arm going around his shoulder and the other snaking its way around his arm. She held her breath and hoped that it did not look awkward in any way. “I’ve decided some time ago that this man will be my spouse.”

Zen, who was at that point trying to shrink his way out of the family drama, turned his head so quickly that his ponytail hit her in the face with an audible slap. “Spouse…?”

Jina looked at him meaningfully and discreetly pinched him in the arm rather painfully.

“Oh. Of course. Ha-ha. Ha-haha,” Zen said, with tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

Chairman Han glowered, while Glam Choi started sputtering. “Wh—what is the meaning of this, Jina? Who is this nobody? Since when have you been engaged to him?!”

“Father, do not be rude. He’s barely a _nobody,_ as you say. He is an up and coming musical actor, and one of C&R’s most important image models.” Jina held her breath once more and leaned in closer to Zen. She wondered briefly why she never tried watching those cheesy dramas that Yookyung and Seven liked to watch—certainly those would have guided her how to act in situations like this. “I am also quite fond of him, in a physical and emotional sense.”

She pinched the actor hard before he could make another stupid sound escape from his throat.

Glam Choi narrowed her eyes suspiciously at both of them. She turned to Zen and asked, “So, Mr. Zen the musical actor. Do you really intend to marry our sweet Jina?”

Jina worried briefly that the way she’s pinching him would lead to blood. “Ah—uh-huh. Marriage to Ju—Jina Han. The strongest m… woman I know. Yes why not!”

“… why not?”

“I mean, yes sir.”

“He’s just nervous, _Daddy_. Poor Hyun—that’s his real name—is sick, and he really didn’t expect to meet the two of you when he’s at his weakest,” she said. She stopped pinching Zen, and he sighed out of relief. “Now, I apologize for cutting our meeting short, but my fiancé needs to rest well. We can set up another meeting in the near future when he’s adequately recovered from his illness.”

Chairman Han was taking deep, noisy breaths, but eventually slowed down. With a sigh, he shook his head. “I see. All right, Jina, we’ll play along.” He turned to Zen, and gave him a smile. “I look forward to meeting this man you chose to marry. The soonest. Well then.”

With those words, the Chairman turned around and left the room. The sea of bodyguards parted. Glam Choi lingered for a while and looked at Jina. “This makes me sad, _sweetie,_ but I’m sure Spencer won’t give up so easily.” The last look that she gave said _this isn’t over._ Wordlessly, she turned around and disappeared behind the door.

Jina stood up silently and turned around, putting one hand to her hip. _Now that was uncharacteristically impulsive of me,_ she thought to herself. _Perhaps I should have handled that differently._

“What. The. HELL!!!!”

She turned around and saw Zen practically exploding. At about the same time, a haggard-looking Assistant Kang burst through the open door and clearly heard the next thing that came from the livid actor’s mouth.

“What was that… WHAT WAS THAT. WHY AM I YOUR FIANCE NOW?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhhhh I had to go ahead and add the whole Sarah Choi thing didn't I   
> I forgot to mention that this story doesn't follow a specific timeline in the MysMe universe (given that this is a very liberal AU) but you will find elements of most of the stories here and there ^^


	4. Is Everyone Else Bonkers Or Is It Just Me

_YOOKYUNG <3 has entered the chatroom. _   
_707 has entered the chatroom._   
_MC has entered the chatroom._

YOOKYUNG<3: OMG OMG OMG OMG  
MC: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG  
707: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG  
707: -breaks glasses-  
707: -breaks glasses-  
707: -breaks glasses-  
YOOKYUNG<3: MY  
YOOKYUNG<3: MY WHOLE BRAIN IS CRYING  
MC: I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO  
MC: THERE’S PINK FLOWERS EVERYWHERE  
707: THIS IS  
707: MY OTP COMING TO LIFE!  
707: JINA!  
707: HAN!  
707: AND!  
707: ZEN!  
707: ARE!

_Jae-jin Kang has entered the chatroom._

707: TYING!  
707: THE!  
Jae-jin Kang: No spamming, please.  
Jae-jin Kang: -sigh-  
707: KNOT  
707: you totally ruined my streak there lol  
MC: Cheer up, Seveny~  
MC: Seriously though  
MC: WHAT TO HECK  
YOOKYUNG<3: -weep-  
YOOKYUNG<3: We missed a lot when Chairman Han forced us outta the room!  
YOOKYUNG<3: -weep-  
Jae-jin Kang: -sigh-  
Jae-jin Kang: rest assured that Ms. Han did not intend to do this in the beginning.  
Jae-jin Kang: she was being driven into a corner by the Chairman and Ms. Choi.  
707: ya we got that  
Jae-jin Kang: still… she surprised me with her move  
Jae-jin Kang: -weep-  
YOOKYUNG<3: jaejin were u there when it happened???  
Jae-jin Kang: sort of  
Jae-jin Kang: I heard everything from outside, but the guards didn’t let me in because I might intervene  
707: the chairman is pretty bold isn’t he  
707: just giving away Jina to some random guy like that lol  
707: altho can’t say he doesn’t know what he’s doing  
MC: what you mean  
707: he got Glam Choi didn’t he  
707: -heart eyes-  
MC: -sweatdrop-  
707: I’m a super big fan  
YOOKYUNG<3: -puffs air-  
YOOKYUNG<3: you got old man tastes, Seven  
YOOKYUNG<3: Echo girl is much cuter lol  
Jae-jin Kang: I do agree that the Chairman might have been… ill-advised about the meeting  
Jae-jin Kang: however, I worry about the repercussions of Ms. Han’s decision  
Jae-jin Kang: not only will new rumours circulate around her and affect certain investments  
Jae-jin Kang: but also, the media will be more curious about Zen  
Jae-jin Kang: and not in a good way  
Jae-jin Kang: I shudder to think about the rumours that they will come up with  
YOOKYUNG<3: You’re right, Jae-jin  
YOOKYUNG<3: what if they find out that Zen is hospitalised  
YOOKYUNG<3: what if  
YOOKYUNG<3: THE STALKER FINDS OUT  
707: … stalker…?  
707: isn’t Jae-jin Zen’s #1 stalker? lol  
Jae-jin Kang: -crushes glasses-  
707: after V that is teehee  
Jae-jin Kang: be serious, Lucille  
Jae-jin Kang: Yoo-kyung has a valid point  
Jae-jin Kang: we upped the security here  
Jae-jin Kang: and we’ve been monitoring the media outlets for any signs of compromising news  
Jae-jin Kang: although… it’s not like we can control the media as much as we want  
MC: you’re working super hard, Jae-jin  
MC: we have to be careful  
MC: the pink-haired girl might find out where Zen is  
YOOKYUNG<3: u rly think he was drugged?  
MC: idk but  
MC: it’s too big a coincidence that she’s there  
MC: when she isn’t supposed to be there  
MC: and Zen… changed right after  
YOOKYUNG<3: right?  
707: hey lol who’s the pink haired girl  
YOOKYUNG<3: oh! Sorry seven  
YOOKYUNG<3: we saw a suspicious person in Zen’s selfie last night  
YOOKYUNG<3: she’s blurry but u can see her over his shoulder… check it out!  
YOOKYUNG<3: oppa says he’s never seen that girl before  
YOOKYUNG<3: and that he was prolly drugged by so his brain got all weird and multi-dimensiony  
MC: hey! Maybe u can clear the photo out Seveny  
707: yeah ok  
707: …  
707: you guys  
707: has V seen this yet?  
MC: … um no… she left by the time we saw that  
YOOKYUNG<3: what’s wrong seven?  
707: nothing  
707: gotta go sry  
MC: wait!

_707 has left the chatroom._

MC: … what was that about?  
YOOKYUNG<3: hmph  
YOOKYUNG<3: you know how it is, MC  
YOOKYUNG<3: secrets, secrets and more secrets  
YOOKYUNG<3: aren’t you used to V yet  
Jae-jin Kang: Yoo-kyung…  
Jae-jin Kang: I understand that it’s still painful, but   
Jae-jin Kang: didn’t we all agree to trust V?  
YOOKYUNG<3: I agreed to no such thing  
YOOKYUNG<3: it’s only been six months, Jaejin  
YOOKYUNG<3: and she acts like she’s forgotten Ryung already  
YOOKYUNG<3: come to think of it  
YOOKYUNG<3: nobody talks about Ryung oppa anymore  
YOOKYUNG<3: I get that MC wouldn’t know anything but  
MC: Yookyung  
MC: she may not look like it but she’s having the hardest time out of all of us  
MC: people mourn differently  
MC: it’s a little unfair that you’re talking about the rest of the RFA like that too  
Jae-jin Kang: MC is right  
Jae-jin Kang: this is a difficult time… for all of us.  
Jae-jin Kang: it’s hard to not know the answers yet  
Jae-jin Kang: but we all have no other choice but to move on…  
YOOKYUNG<3: no-one else wants to know the answers  
YOOKYUNG<3: nobody else but me  
YOOKYUNG<3: you know what  
YOOKYUNG<3: not in the mood to talk anymore  
YOOKYUNG<3: MC I’ll go home now

_YOOKYUNG <3 has left the chatroom _

Jae-jin Kang: …  
MC: …  
MC: she just stormed out of the cafeteria without saying another word ;(  
MC: I’ll make sure she gets home safe  
Jae-jin Kang: Thank you, MC.  
Jae-jin Kang: I will continue to accompany Ms. Han.  
Jae-jin Kang: Let us speak later.  
MC: okay.  
  
_Jae-jin Kang has left the chatroom.  
MC has left the chatroom. _

 

What the hell was happening.

 “Why…. Why would you do that…”

What the hell was happening…!!!

The woman had zero emotions on her face. It was as if nothing happened at all for the past few hours. As if Zen wasn’t hospitalized for being in the wrong dimension. As if Chairman Han didn’t come bursting through the door with the movie star Glam Choi and didn’t force female Jumin Han into marriage.

As if female Jumin Han didn’t announce that she... she’s going to…

“I’M NOT MARRYING YOU! NO WAY!!!”

“Zen, please calm down!” Male Jaehee was suddenly at his side, holding him back from attacking Female Jumin.

With the same infuriatingly neutral gaze, the woman thoughtfully answered, “Yes, I suppose not marrying you is the best case scenario here, isn’t it?” and continued to go _hmm_ as she looked out the window.

“What the heck were you thinking, you jerk… jerk-lady?! Oh my god, your dad and Glam-freakin’-Choi thinks we’re getting married… everyone will know… are we… are we really _engaged?”_

“Yes. And good on you and your effort to address me properly, Zen.”

“YOU—“

“Zen, please calm down!” Once more, the male Jaehee held him down. He was unexpectedly strong, and Zen fell back against his pillows with an _oof._ His glasses in disarray, he hastily pushed this up the bridge of his nose and looked at his boss. “Ms. Han, I do wonder about your intentions too. As such, I am unsure of the next course of action to take.”

Female Jumin Han moved to the windows and thoughtfully stared out into the city. Looking at her back, Zen was able to appreciate her tall, slender silhouette, clad in crisp white silk and a high-waisted pencil skirt, which complemented her backside rather well.

_Watch it, you beast. Are you seriously looking at AU Jumin Han’s butt in a situation like this?!_

He supposed everything about it was alluring for most guys, but what was most alluring was the almost imperceptible hum of her thoughts. It was a powerful image, that of a strategist. He wondered briefly if this was how she looked when it comes to difficult transactions, and whether the Jumin Han of his universe had any such moments like this…

He didn’t realize his rage going down until she sharply turned around to face them once more.

“There’s no way out of our engagement,” she began, crossing her arms over her chest. “At least, not until we resolve the number of roadblocks that seem to be in our way.”

Zen’s face fell. Male Jaehee sighed, but reluctantly nodded. “What shall we do, Ms. Han?”

“There are three clear problems we have to address in this situation to have a clear resolution.” Her heels went _clack-clack-clack_ as she paced around the room. “First is Glam Choi and this student of hers. Sputnik.”

“Spencer,” corrected Male Jaehee.

“Sparta,” answered female Jumin, barely missing a beat before she continued. “We may have fended it off for now, but it is obvious that the woman will not back down easily. I find the timing of all of this rather curious, henceforth we have to make sure of their true intentions.”

“Understood,” said male Jaehee. “I will do a background check on both of them.”

“I want it as thorough as possible, so ask Seven to help you.”  She continued pacing around. “Next problem is my father, the Chairman. My marriage status has never been identified as a problem before Ms. Choi entered the picture. It’s likely that it was that woman who fed him the idea that I have to be married as soon as possible. It seems that there are only two ways around this. One is that I refuse his wishes and get disowned—“

“That’s overkill, Jumin!” blurted out Zen. “Would the chairman—your own father—really disown you for something like that?!”

“It’s Jina. And while I am unsure of him disowning me, any further conflict like this will surely put a strain on our business relationship and will risk the future of the company. Because of this, my exit from C&R should logically follow my refusal.”

She said all this in such a disinterested tone that Zen couldn’t help but wonder if any or all the Jumins in all the alternate dimensions were robots. _She really doesn’t care if she gets disowned?!_

_(Although, I’m seriously not one to talk… even in this universe, it seems that my biological family doesn’t want anything to do with me.)_

“And before you ask, no. This is not an outcome that I wish to happen. I do care for my father and I will continue to work for his approval.” Still, not a hint of emotion in her voice. “The second way around this is to keep up the charade of our engagement. He may not approve of this set-up as of now, but all we need to do is to act as if we have a true, mutual bond that we do not wish to share with anybody else. If we are able to convince him of that, the meddling might cease, and we will have more opportunities for a way out once Ms. Choi is out of the way.”

“… true, mutual bond… wait, you lost me there.”

Male Jaehee cleared his throat and said, with a mildly embarrassed tone, “Ms. Han meant that the two of you have to act like you are in-love with each other.”

Just thinking about it made his skin crawl. “IN-LOVE? With—“

“At least in front of the chairman. And… the media, eventually.” Again, a tired sigh from Male Jaehee. “And if I understood Ms. Han correctly, it’s only for as long as the Chairman’s relationship with Ms. Choi lasts.”

“And exactly how long is that?!”

Director and assistant glanced at each other. “Based on his average performance, I’d give it between three to six months after the marriage.”

Is everyone in this family bonkers?!

“Perhaps even less if we unfurl their motives early on.”

The two of them seemed confident about the eventual failure of the Chairman’s marriage. Could Zen really ride it out until then? “Even if you say so, there’s no way I could do that with this stuck-up…!!!”

“And this brings us to our third problem, which is _you,_ Zen.” She pointed a well-manicured index finger to his face. “While it is unfortunate that you are suffering from a neuropsychiatric problem at the moment, you are involved now. And we will need your full cooperation for this to work.”

“Whose fault is it that I got involved, anyway?!”

“We are asking you to _act,_ Zen. I thought that as an actor you would be able to manage as much,” said Female Jumin haughtily. “Or can you not manage a simple a role as this?”

“Believe me, there’s nothing simple about acting like I can _stand_ you, much less like I’m in-love with you.” Acting was all about measured composure, and he tends to lose it each and every time the CEO-in-line opened his mouth. Her mouth.

“That’s too bad. I thought of you as a professional, Zen. It’s not like you have a choice. If you don’t do well, nothing good will come to you or your career.”

He scowled and narrowed his eyes. “Even going so far as threatening my career…? You don’t mean that.”

Male Jaehee cleared his throat, looking defeated. “I’m sorry Zen, but it’s not a mere idle threat. The Chairman and his envoy had already taken note of your name and appearance. It will not be a difficult task to get information on you since you are a public figure. If the Chairman knows about Ms. Han’s scheme, or if he believes that you are in anyway mistreating her, it won’t be good for you.”

He started feeling weak at the knees. “So that means…”

“You will be famous, but not as an actor. You will only be known as the ruffian opportunist who abused my trust,” said Female Jumin ominously.

Zen almost felt giant, concrete letters spelling GOLD-DIGGER and HEARTBREAKER crashing cartoonishly over his battered, beautiful body. Followed by dramatic rain drops drowning him and carrying him off to paradise.

“Zen…” said Male Jaehee sympathetically.

Goodbye acting. Goodbye, singing and dancing. Hello, gossip channels and reality shows and hate mail and obscurity.

“I… I don’t want that,” he answered quietly. “Dammit, Jumin, I worked too hard for this…! Why, why did you have to involve me in your shit?! Without giving me a heads-up or anything?!”

With no permission whatsoever, he was forced to act as a rich woman’s arm candy, just to please other rich people. He felt dirty. Used. Disrespected. And by a person who was supposed to be his friend.

“It’s _Jina._ ” Her eyes looked odd for a second. Later on, Zen would realize that this was her exerting superhuman effort in softening her gaze and looking apologetic. “Kindly accept my apology for involving you in my personal affairs.”

He was about to say something snarky about how insincere and stuck-up and selfish and self-centred she was, but within the next moment her head gaze was downward and her head was lowered in a half-bow.

The sight of it made Zen’s jaw drop. Heck, even male Jaehee was at a loss for words for a moment.

“You’re actually apologizing? To me?”

“Yes, I am. It was improper of me to involve you in this without your consent,” answered the businesswoman, without changing her position.

“Ms. Han,” began Male Jaehee, with glistening tears forming at the corners of his eyes. “If only I were able to hold off Chairman Han… if only I were able to assist you in the meeting… then you and Zen would not have had this trouble.” He bowed as well, making Zen falter. “Kindly accept my sincere apology as well!!!!”

Zen looked at them both, his ponytail swishing noisily as he turned from one bowed executive to the other. “O-oi, you guys, it’s fine, it’s fine. I… I accept your apology! I accept it, all right? And I’ll do my best to help you out. Come on, it’s fine…”

Has Jumin Han ever apologized to Zen before? He racked his brains to remember, and nothing came up. Male Jaehee and Female Jumin straightened up, with the assistant fetching a pretty yellow handkerchief to wipe his tears away.

The director regained her regal composure in the next second. “Good.” She turned to Assistant Kang. “I accept your apology too, Assistant Kang, but you will face serious consequences should this happen again.”

“Urk. U-Understood.”

“You jerk!” He knew it was too good to be true.

“And as for you, Zen,” In what appeared to be an effort to be affectionate, she walked up to his side and awkwardly patted his shoulder. “Thank you, and congratulations on being my fiancé. I look forward to your continuing cooperation.”

He would have laughed watching it from afar, but it only annoyed him seeing it up close. “You should really work on that.”

“Hm. I thought I did well.” She turned to Assistant Kang. “I suppose the two of us should get back to the main office. Now that the Chairman has seen me, there’s no reason to attempt to avoid him any further.”

So that was the main reason why she volunteered to watch over Zen?! He felt a vein pop in his forehead.

“Let the private duty nurse begin his duty now.”

“Right away, Ms. Han,” said Male Jaehee. Turning to Zen, he placed one hand softly over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about this too much, Zen. Concentrate on feeling better. I’ll help you every step of the way.”

“Jaehee~” cried Zen, genuinely feeling touched. “You’re such a spot of brightness in this dark night!”

“… it’s ten in the morning, Zen.”

“Shut up, trust fund jerk.”

Male Jaehee sweatdropped, but had a tinge of pink over his cheeks and a genuine, very handsome smile on his face. “I—it’s Jae-jin, but thank you, Zen. I’m always here for you. Let’s speak on the messenger app later.” With that, he waved at him, nodded in Female Jumin’s direction, and started making his next hundred phone calls.

Female Jumin nodded as well and was on her way out when Zen stopped her. “Hey.”

She turned to him wordlessly.

He knew he was being petty, but what the heck, he deserved to be petty. “How about you? Aren’t you going to say goodbye to me?” He put a hand to his chin and looked at her smugly. “You _are_ my fiancée, aren’t you?”

Time to mess with the robot’s head, he thought to himself deviously.

She tilted her head to one side. Without looking affected in any way, she asked, “Would that make you happy, Zen?”

“Er… well…”

“Are you asking me to say goodbye to you? Is that something you like to hear, Zen?”

She was moving closer to him suddenly. She moved so quickly that in the next moment, all Zen could see was her face.

“Uh… yeah,” he said, struggling not to let his blood reach to his cheeks. Shit, her nose was almost touching his. Her skin was as clear as porcelain—obviously the skin of someone who’s never had to struggle in life. Her lavender perfume tickled his nostrils. His eyes had no escape from her dark eyes.

She smirked. “All right. Goodbye, Zen.”

No change in expression at all. Without another word she turned and closed the door. An annoying silence engulfed the room.

Minutes later, as the clueless private duty nurse entered, Zen was muttering profanities and grievances about “that rich witch, CEO-in-line, robotic, cat loving nerd face” and how he was definitely getting back at her soon.

 

 

 

Jae-jin Kang, with obvious melancholy over his features, flipped through his planner and reviewed his daily agenda.

It hadn’t been a good day—Zen was hospitalized, and he wasn’t himself, and it was only a small comfort that his beauty has not been affected in any way. Ms. Han, of all people, proposed to him, and Jae-jin tried to ignore the feelings of jealousy in his heart and promised to support them both. It was difficult, but what can a lowly male assistant like him do, right?

 _And I was going to watch Hair Gel next week too,_ he thought sadly. _I suppose I can still sell these tickets away…_

Because he spent the early morning watching over Zen, chasing after the Chairman, and fetching Ms. Han from the hospital, the stressed assistant had to move the meeting with the Halton company regarding the cat hotels project to the late afternoon—it was lucky that the Halton representatives’ flights were delayed, and having the meeting moved was no problem.

So that gives him about an hour to accompany the cat hotels model to photographer Rui’s studio for his glamour shots. _And if we finish early, I might even have time for lunch,_ he thought hopefully, already imagining the _dosirak_ he had waiting for him in the office refrigerator.

“Mrrrow.”

“I understand, Elliot 3rd, but you _must_ be patient,” he said with a sigh.

“Meow meow.”

“Delays do happen, Elliot 3rd. Many things happened beyond our control within the span of a few hours. Rui understood that, so all we have to do is show up.”

“Meow!”

“… fine,” said Jae-jin, turning his office seat to face the kitty carrier where the snow-white Persian was haughtily looking at him. “I am sorry for changing your schedule without informing you properly beforehand. I hope you can accept my sincere apology.”

“Meow…?”

He tried to keep from gritting his teeth. “I apologize as well for not being able to brush your fur this morning. I promise to do it before your photoshoot.”

The cat purred.

“Thank you. Let’s continue to work hard.” Jae-jin turned back to his computer screen, where he was busy drafting the business proposal for the cat amusement park project, when he heard a strange noise next to the carrier.

“It’s all right, Elliot. Just let the hairball out. Don’t keep it in.”

“Excuse me?”

That didn’t sound anything like Elliot 3rd. He had imagined that one of these days, when the cat finally learns how to talk, his voice would be haughty and rich, just like his owner. The one that spoke to him just now was course, and not at all appealing…

The assistant looked up sharply. A tall guy with his hair dyed in a dusky rose colour and who wasn’t wearing office clothes was staring at him in a confused manner.

“Oh, sorry.” Jae-jin stood up from his seat. Perhaps it was a client of one of the offices downstairs. “How may I help you? Do you need help with directions?”

“You’re Jina’s assistant, aren’t you?” asked the guy, staring at the cat. He pointedly started dusting off his pink Bacoste polo shirt, as if worried that fur would stick to it. He had a derisive smirk on his face, and Jae-jin knew, with mild embarrassment, that he was listening to his conversation with Elliot 3rd minutes ago.

Jae-jin straightened his body and put a stern face on. He didn’t enjoy looking intimidating, but being the Chief Assistant requires it from time to time. “If you mean Director Han, then yes, I work directly under her. I am Chief Assistant Kang.”

“Right, right,” said the guy, not bothering to acknowledge the change in the atmosphere. “Then assist me, won’t you? I need to see her pronto.”

“… excuse me?”

“I said, bring me to her office. She and I need to conversate about our future.”

 _Conversate isn’t a word,_ thought Jae-jin in annoyance. “I apologize, but you need to have an appointment with Director Han before you are allowed to see her.”

The guy clicked his tongue. “I can see that you don’t understand what you’re doing, buddy. Well, let’s put it this way. If you don’t bring me to her this instant, the Chairman himself will want to conversate with you for a long time, and you won’t have to come back the next morning for work. Understood?”

Jae-jin wanted severely to crush his face and bring to null all the plastic surgeries done on his stupid face. Instead, he calmly pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I see. If you don’t want to set an appointment with me, then you can’t speak with her.”

In that instant, the door to Jae-jin’s office opened, and in walked the woman in question. She barely registered the existence of the stranger and made her way directly to Jae-jin’s table. “Assistant Kang, how is Elliot 3rd? Where’s the monitoring sheet for his vital signs?”

Jae-jin felt the guy’s annoying smug face. _Don’t punch his face. Don’t punch his face._ He concentrated all his effort on handing the monitoring sheet to his boss. “He is doing fine, Ms. Han. He had not sneezed for the past two hours. His temperature remains stable at 36.5 C.”

“Very good. And the shoot?” Director Han had crouched down to look into the carrier to lightly rub Elliot 3rd’s head with her finger. The cat purred loudly in response.

“We will leave after your visit, Ms. Han.”

“Very good.”

“Ahem!”

Director Han turned to face the annoying guy. Jae-jin saw a deathly purple aura emanate from her surroundings.

When she didn’t say another word, the guy gave her a brilliant smile. His teeth were bleached so white Jae-jin wished he was wearing his sunglasses. “Hey, Jina! It’s me! Spencer!”

Oh, so this was Spencer. _This isn’t good._

“I don’t know you,” said Ms. Han sternly. “If you have any concerns, kindly relay them to Assistant Kang. He will manage them expertly.”

She had already turned to leave, but Spencer held on to her arm before she could. The director glared at his hand, but he continued without missing a beat. “Don’t be in a hurry, Jina. I’m here ‘cause your daddy wanted me to meet you personally~”

The director still looked annoyed, but a look of realization came to her eyes. “Oh. You’re that person, aren’t you? Spearman.”

“Spencer.”

“Spudson.”

“Spencer,” said the guy more firmly. “I’m Ms. Glam Choi’s student~! You know, before she became the successful drama actor that she is right now, she taught in A University, and I’m one of her beloved students.”

Clearly disinterested, Ms. Han brushed the spot where Spencer had touched her. “I see. Did father send you here to bring a message?”

“W-ell… a message? Gosh, I’m not here on an errand or anything. Isn’t that why we hire assistants in the first place?” He had given Jae-jin a condescending glance when he said this, and Jae-jin clenched his fist once more.

“If you’re not here for anything important, then I will need to leave you now.” Again, Ms. Han turned to leave, and Spencer stopped her with a hand to her shoulder.

“Wait, Jina, I know you’re busy now, but I really, really, _really_ want to get to know you.” He gave her his most charming smile. “I’d like to treat you to dinner one time. I know a fancy French restaurant nearby, with the best _foie gras_ you’ll ever taste. How’s tomorrow evening sound?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Ms. Han.

“Why not?”

Ms. Han clearly did _not_ want to prolong the conversation any longer. “I do not go on dates,” she answered curtly.

“That’s no fun,” said Spencer. He hit one palm with his fist and said. “I know! If you’re really pressed for time, maybe I can swing by your place instead? I could bring a bottle of wine and we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other…”

Jae-jin was very, very, very uncomfortable. _Come on, Ms. Han, just tell him you’re engaged already so he’ll get the hint._ He decided that the next time Spencer touches Jina, he’d have to intervene. If he gets fired for it, then so be it.

However, by this time, Ms. Han had a smile on her face. “I’m sorry, but that’s not possible.”

“Oh? Why not? I mean, I can go anywhere, you know. Transpo’s no problem for me,” gloated Spencer.

“My fiancé wouldn’t like it,” said Ms. Han in a challenging tone.

 _Whew. She finally said it,_ thought Jae-jin in relief. To his dismay, however, Spencer showed no signs of backing down.

“Yeah, Glam _did_ tell me that I have competition. But I’m not worried,” he said proudly. “Anyway, it won’t be a date, it’s just two friends having wine together. It should be fine, right?”  

Ms. Han shook her head. “Impossible. You see, we live together. And what’s more, he’s coming home from the hospital tomorrow. So I’m afraid there won’t be room for you, Spudson.”

Finally, Spencer flinched. “Oh… that’s a shame, Jina~ well, it’s okay, I won’t give up. I’ll work hard until I can get that date with you~” He turned around to leave, but looked back to look at the two of them in the eye. “You know, maybe I can ask your daddy if I can visit you anyway! Yeah, that’s a good idea, isn’t it? Anyway, see you soon, Jina!”

The door closed behind him. Jae-jin sighed deeply and put his handkerchief to his forehead. He glanced at Ms. Han, who already had her finger to her chin, deep in thought.

After a while, she barked, “Assistant Kang.”

“Yes, Ms. Han.”

“Starting tomorrow, Zen will be living in the spare room in the penthouse. Please arrange this well.”

W… what?

“Spudson has just threatened to visit my home. If he sees that Zen doesn’t live there, my father and that woman will definitely catch me and will somehow force me to marry him.”

“I… I understand, Ms. Han.” _More importantly, why did you get stuck on Spudson, out of all names?_ “But Zen may not be ready for discharge by tomorrow.”

“By hook or by crook, Assistant Kang, Zen has to be in my home by tomorrow.” This was the last thing that she said before leaving Jae-jin by himself in his office.

Jae-jin felt exhausted. He fell back on his office chair with a _poof._ He stared at Elliot 3rd, who seemed mildly bemused at the turn of events.

“So… you ship them too, don’t you, Elliot?”

The cat purred contentedly.

Jae-jin sighed. “I just hope Zen is able to handle you as a housemate.” He should contact the pharmacy to stock the penthouse with epi-pens.

 

 

 

 

The girl wasn’t feeling very well at that moment.

Her head ached so badly that it felt like it would explode the next second. Her tongue was dry. Her heart was beating like a frenetic drum. Her skin felt cold and hot at the same time, and all she wanted to do was to go back to the computer room to close her eyes for ten minutes. No, five minutes should be okay, shouldn’t it? Or three?

“Rei… what am I supposed to do with you?”

No, three minutes is too long.

Her Saviour was at her side as they walked through the garden. It was a beautiful place, one of Rei’s favourite places in the world. Usually the vibrant flowers, which appeared to glow under the moonlight, would bring her comfort and ease, even when she was in physical pain.

However, none of those silly flowers were enough to quell the self-hatred that she felt inside.

“My plans to bring salvation to the RFA are simple and flawless, and you managed to mess them up each time.”

The boy she had tricked to join the RFA didn’t work—in fact, he had somehow even improved the situation there, so that the annoying redhead made even stronger defences in her codes. It was strong enough that she, Unknown, who could have easily manipulated past conversations and steal data and monitor the chatrooms whenever she wished, could only do so clandestinely in the silent hours of the night, and as quickly as possible.

They knew that party that was supposed to be held was postponed indefinitely by that mint-haired bat, and the Saviour’s plans could not come to fruition. Their next plan was to manipulate Zen into convincing the rest of the RFA to hold another party, but the elixir that she slipped into his drink seemed to have a different, altogether disturbing effect on him…

“Worthless,” Saviour muttered under his breath. “You _do_ understand, don’t you, Rei? Nobody is allowed to be weak anymore. We have to be the strongest if we want to save everybody.”

She nodded. She felt tears stinging the corners of her eyes, but she blinked these away. She felt a warm finger on her chin tilting her face up.

“Look at me, Rei.”

It was uncomfortable enough for the small girl to look up because of the great height difference, but it was almost painful for her to look at her Saviour’s face up close.

Golden hair like sunlight. Fair skin that glowed under the moonlight. A dark Venetian mask covering his face, complementing his black tuxedo. Green eyes, with pupils so dark that they seem to lead to a place completely devoid of light, in sharp contrast to the brightness of his shell.

“Because I love you like my own flesh and blood, I will give you one more chance.” The Saviour’s smile was serene and chaotic at the same time. “Make it so that the RFA will hold another party in the soonest possible time. If you can execute it by whatever means necessary, I will forgive you. If you can’t, I’d have to get another person to do this job for you. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Saviour.”

He let go of her chin and inhaled deeply. “Very good, Rei. You always work hard for me, don’t you? Don’t stop. You must hurry then. It’s almost time for your evening dose of the elixir.”  

The Saviour turned around then and left her in the garden alone. She took a deep breath and wiped those infernal tears stinging her eyes.

“Rei… this is no time to be weak… y-you don’t need her. You don’t need her at all.”

_What can a weakling like you do?_

“I don’t need her…”

_You need me more than I need you, marshmallow girl. Airhead._

“I don’t…”

_Come on. Look at yourself. You’ve done your best but you keep failing. How can a stick like you accomplish anything?_

_How can a sub-human like you make the Saviour happy?_

Before she knew it, she was staring at herself in the dark reflection of the garden’s greenhouse. She saw herself: small, with messy, chin-length ghost white hair and ghost white skin and almost lizard-like green eyes. The magenta cocktail dress that she wore was frilly and lacy and delicate and beautiful, unlike her. When she looked at her face, all she saw was the tired dark circles under her eyes. When she gazed at her gloved hands and arms, all she saw were tremulous thin pieces of wood that can’t do anything.

_Worthless._

She punched the glass once. It shattered into giant shards that cut parts of her exposed skin. In the next instant, two terrified believers were at her side, speaking worthless things rapidly and wrapping worthless pieces of cloth over her worthless arm and cleaning off the worthless blood that had stained the glass and the soil beneath her worthless feet.

 As they ushered her into Magenta, speaking in their grating voices, the wind carried with it a soft, awful voice that reached her ear, making her heart stop in her chest.

_Sera… what has he done to you?_

Angrily, she turned to where the wind came from, but there was nothing there but empty space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long chapter T_T  
> Writing as Jae-jin is my favorite part of this story so far hehe


	5. I Really Didn't Need To Hear That

_707 has entered the chatroom._

707: seriously? Nobody is online…?   
707: time to do a summoning spell~!  
707: **MEOW  
** 707: **meow**  
707: meow  
707: m e o w…

_MC has entered the chatroom._

MC: Meow!   
707: **M E O W ~ !**  
707: (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*  
MC: *ヽ(◕ヮ◕ヽ)  
MC: What’s up, Seveny?   
707: well   
707: was hoping to see V here   
707: I guess it’s really impossible huh   
707: OTL  
MC: oh   
MC: Jina did say that she left in a hurry yesterday when we visited the hospital  
MC: have you tried calling her?   
707: ya   
707: _The number you dialled is out of service_  
707: OTL   
MC: ;(   
MC: well… if her phone doesn’t have a signal then   
MC: I guess the internet is out of the question too   
707: I guess   
707: well… maybe I’ll try later   
MC: are you okay, my goddess?   
MC: you seem   
MC: super worried   
707: nah don’t worry bout it, Hero   
MC: what did u need from her?

_YOOKYUNG_ _< 3 has entered the chatroom.   
Jae-jin Kang has entered the chatroom. _

707: I need to update some stuff in her phone   
707: since we’re both the admins for the RFA app and all  
707: the hacker has been sneaky but   
707: just a lil more   
707: and I would have defeated the Final Boss!   
707: -happy dance-  
MC: Hey, Yookyung! Hey Jaejin!   
YOOKYUNG<3: Hey guys.   
Jae-jin Kang: hello, Lucille. Yoo-kyung. MC.   
Jae-jin Kang: -weep-   
MC: be strong, Jae-jin ;;   
Jae-jin Kang: thank you, MC.   
Jae-jin Kang: Zen just got discharged.   
YOOKYUNG<3: rly? That fast?  
Jae-jin Kang: yes   
Jae-jin Kang: they did a lumbar puncture on Zen’s beautiful back last night and im afraid there might be a scar there   
MC: -sweatdrop-  
Jae-jin Kang: but after that, the doctor agreed to send Zen home, pending results   
Jae-jin Kang: with therapy to be determined at home.   
Jae-jin Kang: apart from that   
Jae-jin Kang: for better security   
Jae-jin Kang: Ms. Han has decided to lend one of the penthouse rooms for Zen’s use   
Jae-jin Kang: and because of their constant close proximity  
Jae-jin Kang: … **I’ve been trying to keep them from killing each other all morning**  
MC: ^^’   
MC: they’re really pushing thru with the engagement thing huh   
YOOKYUNG <3: that sounds stressful  
YOOKYUNG<3: but I guess it can’t be avoided.  
707: well aren’t you guys cheerful.   
707: ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ)  
707: touchy touchy yookyungie  
707: throwing throwing tantrummies  
YOOKYUNG<3: geez.   
YOOKYUNG<3: im ok now   
YOOKYUNG<3: sry for being grumpy   
YOOKYUNG<3: might have been PMS  
YOOKYUNG<3: my tummy hurt like hell when I got home   
YOOKYUNG<3: btw MC, thanks for bringing me home and getting me meds   
MC: np Yookyung ^^’   
707: did u get her pads too MC?   
707: -glasses break-   
MC: nah she has a huge stash at home  
MC: but if she needed it, I wouldn’t have minded   
MC: no big deal hehe   
707: -heart eyes-   
707: MY HERO   
YOOKYUNG<3: -puffs air-  
MC: ^^’  
Jae-jin Kang: Oh.   
Jae-jin Kang: buying feminine hygiene products as a favour has never been a problem for me, either.   
707: ya   
707: but ur boss is Jina Han   
707: I bet u buy all sorts of embarrassing girly things for her hehe   
Jae-jin Kang: …   
Jae-jin Kang: anyway, to change the subject   
Jae-jin Kang: you were looking for V, Lucille?   
707: ya   
707: do u know where she is?   
Jae-jin Kang: I’m sorry.   
Jae-jin Kang: yesterday, after her visit, she mentioned that she was going to take photos in the countryside   
Jae-jin Kang: she said that the signal might be poor in those areas   
707: oh. I see.   
707: I assumed that I’d find her in Jina’s place   
Jae-jin Kang: why?   
707: well cos they’re best friends right lol   
707: and theyre both alcoholics   
707: and Jina might be stressed   
707: so they might be having unlimited mimosas for brunch or sth lol   
YOOKYUNG<3: ya know I can totally imagine that lol   
YOOKYUNG<3: I’ve never tried a mimosa before   
YOOKYUNG<3: sounds really fancy and yummy   
MC: hehe r u even allowed to drink Yookyung   
Jae-jin Kang: Lucille   
Jae-jin Kang: somehow I have a bad feeling   
Jae-jin Kang: so be honest when answering me   
707: NO   
Jae-jin Kang: Lucille Choi!   
Jae-jin Kang: please don’t tell me you’ve…   
707: ONE PICTURE  
707: IS WORTH  
707: ONE HUNDRED   
707: THOUSAND  
707: WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!   
YOOKYUNG: zomg

  
_707 has sent an attachment: ELLYANDMELOVELOVE4EVER.jpg_

 __  
YOOKYUNG <3: u… u rly broke in   
Jae-jin Kang: -breaks glasses-   
MC: I don’t think ive ever seen a cat so confused before lol  
MC: oh you even got him a little bowtie ;D  
707: PRENUP SHOOT   
Jae-jin Kang: Leave! Now!

_Jae-jin Kang has left the chatroom._

707: …!!!   
707: I can hear them outside!   
707: MC, you know where my last will and testament is kept right?!   
YOOKYUNG<3: OMG lol u betta run   
MC: Goddess Seven! I will love you forever!

_707 has left the chatroom._

YOOKYUNG<3: she’s crazy as ever.   
YOOKYUNG<3: so she’s gonna run into Zen and Jina right?   
MC: yep   
MC: I’m kind of jealous that she’ll see them together after the engagement before we do   
MC: I… kinda wanna throw them a party   
YOOKYUNG<3: haha   
YOOKYUNG<3: u really got into the groove of planning parties huh?   
YOOKYUNG<3: too bad V postponed this one indefinitely TT_TT   
MC: yeah   
MC: well, it’s not an ideal time anyway   
MC: given this whole issue with Zen   
MC: and Jina too   
YOOKYUNG<3: yeah I guess it was just meant to happen like that   
YOOKYUNG<3: delays are angels working in the background~  
MC: that’s… beautiful, Yookyung   
YOOKYUNG<3: yep, it’s from my favourite author, Pavlov Cuello   
YOOKYUNG<3: I would ask you to invite him to the RFA party, but…   
MC: yea I get it hehe   
MC: I’ll keep him in mind tho.   
MC: I’ll look for his email address online. Just in case ;)   
YOOKYUNG<3: -blushes-   
YOOKYUNG<3: o look at the time MC!   
MC: time for class?   
YOOKYUNG<3: lol no   
YOOKYUNG<3: time for the LOVELOVE February Dungeon Raid event on LOLOL   
YOOKYUNG<3: to kill the dungeon trolls for love!   
MC: -sweatdrop-  
YOOKYUNG<3: im goin  
MC: right. Bye cutie Yookyung!   
YOOKYUNG<3: bye cutie oppa!

_YOOKYUNG <3 has left the chatroom.   
MC has left the chatroom. _

 

 

Zen was _very_ sure that he didn’t like this universe. Not one bit.

First of all, he was engaged, and not to a cute, gentle woman that he loved with all his heart. It just had to be the female version of the worst human being he knew—well, at least, the worst human being who wasn’t going around doing crimes and hacking into stuff and all.

Next, his perception of reality wasn’t back to normal yet. After having medical professionals poke and prod him all over his body to see why his brain got all weird, he was now being rushed to Jumin Han— _no, Jina Han, I have to get used to saying that—_ ‘s home, with no options to say no.

Jae-jin explained the situation with Spencer the day before. Besides, in the penthouse, he would be more secure against the media vultures and the stalkers and will convince anyone that they’re engaged and in a serious relationship.

Jina assured him that she wouldn’t even _allow_ that furball near his line of sight, but the way she said it made him feel like she cared more about the welfare of the cat rather than the status of his allergies, and so he didn’t appreciate this remark one bit.

He rubbed the spot on his back where the lumbar puncture was done. All the tests done so far, even the drug screening, yielded nothing. They would process his cerebrospinal fluid for any signs of infection or inflammation. If this was negative, the doctors were suggesting to have him go through psychotherapy to help him cope with stress.

 _I’ll definitely have long-lasting trauma once this is over, so seeing a shrink won’t be so bad,_ he thought passively to himself. Between the hospital and the C&R main building, Zen and Jumin—no, Jina—already argued seven times, with Jae-jin intervening each time. They were riding the elevator to the penthouse at that time, and the CEO-in-line had already reprimanded him for gawking at everything. Well, _excuse him_ for being impressed with how the main building looked. Even in his universe, he’s never had any reason to step foot in Jumin’s workplace, and this is the first time he had to take in all the grandeur of it.

“The entire penthouse floor belongs to Ms. Han. Fingerprints and facial recognition are required for access via elevator,” Jae-jin was explaining methodically, tucking his smart phone in his pocket. “The layout is fairly easy to understand, but just in case, you may refer to the PDF I’ve sent to your email for the floor plans. Kindly take note of all the fire exits. You will be residing in a separate space from Ms. Han and Elliot 3rd, so we need not worry about your allergies.”

“Thanks, Jae-jin. I was worried about that.” Even the cat was named differently here. Well, no matter, not like he cared much about the furball anyway.

“We have provided you with basic clothing and toiletries. For food or other such necessities, you may use the intercom and the staff will provide you with anything you need.”

Zen nodded, trying not to feel overwhelmed. “Y… yeah. Is there any chance I can just go to the supermarket to buy my own stuff?”

He saw Jina wrinkle her nose. Jae-jin, however, just nodded. “The last five floors of the C&R building are connected to the shopping mall. A supermarket is located at the basement level. Furthermore, there is a convenience store at the ground floor of this building.” The assistant handed him a shiny, gold card. “You may use this for your purchases as necessary.”

He held his hand up in refusal. “No, it’s fine. I have my own money.”

Jina tilted her head at him curiously. “You’re refusing. I do not understand why.”

Zen frowned at her. “I’m not comfortable with spending other people’s hard-earned cash. I can manage by myself.”

Jae-jin nodded with a proud look on his face. It was the same look that Jaehee gives him in the other universe whenever Zen managed to say something profound. “I understand, Zen.” He put the gold card in the pocket of his suit. Just then, the elevator _dinged_ and the doors opened to reveal the penthouse.

“Whoa.” The penthouse did not look anything like the other floors that he chanced upon earlier. It was a vast space, with shiny black marble adorning everywhere he looked. The clear glass windows provided a beautiful view of Seoul’s skyline. A not-so-humble fountain was situated in the middle, and two guards silently stood nearby.

“Ms. Han’s living space is that way,” Jae-jin said, gesturing to a door a few feet away, “And this will be your unit.”

Zen stared at his new, hopefully temporary home. It was likely not as big as Jina’s unit, which surprised him because it was about three times as large as the space he rented downtown. It had minimalistic touches, but it was tidy and expensive and nothing that Zen was used to. He looked around and placed his bag on the biggest couch he will ever kinda own in his life ever.

Jina had her arms crossed. “You don’t seem comfortable, Zen.”

“I don’t?”

“In fact, you seem discontent.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Jae-jin put a real effort in arranging this place, so you should appear more thankful.”

“Oh, no, of course I’m thankful!” stammered Zen. He sighed and looked around once more. “The ceiling is high, the furniture’s top class, the space is more than enough for me to practice acting… and look, there’s even a keyboard there so I can practice playing.”

Jina looked at the keyboard with mild interest and back at Zen. “So why are you dissatisfied?”

Zen shrugged. “You know, my place isn’t as nice as this, but I’m happy with it, because I’m paying for it with my own money. Before that, I was living in a place the size of a broom closet.”

Jina nodded. “I can’t imagine that. My walk-in closet is about a third of your apartment.”

He glared at her. He’ll just have to learn how to ignore comments like that. “So, anyway, the reason why I’m uncomfortable is that this beautiful space is just being handed to me. I feel like… I don’t know. Like I don’t deserve it, ‘cause I didn’t work for it.”

When he was a teenager, working merciless shifts just to earn enough for food, he dreamed of a life like this. Now that it was handed to him on a silver platter, he felt sick to his stomach, and it had nothing to do with his apparent mental illness. He didn’t expect Jina to understand all that though.

The businesswoman hummed and tilted her head curiously. “I don’t understand Zen. You _are_ working for me as a faux fiancé. So this is part of the payment for your work.”

He felt a vein pop in his forehead. “Excuse me? I’m working for you now?”

“Technically it’s a favour to me, I suppose,” answered Jina thoughtfully, a finger to her chin again, “however, it requires labour on your part as an actor. So if you are uncomfortable with this, do not consider this as a hand-out, but as compensation.”

 “You stinkin’ rich kid…” Whether it’s a misguided attempt to comfort him or not, he still felt miffed. Zen tried to calm himself down. “I was doing this for you as your friend, you know. Because you were in a pinch.”

Jina sighed. “I suppose so. Well, friend or not, you have to live here now. I might require you to be present in my unit as the need arises, but for most part, you have to stay here.”

 “Fine. But once I’m medically cleared, I can get back to working, right?”

“We’ll have to talk about that—“ the businesswoman began, but was interrupted by a man’s cry. The two of them turned sharply to where Jae-jin stood staring in bewilderment at his phone.

“Jae-jin? What’s the matter?” asked Zen.

Jae-jin looked at the two of them in panic. “S—STAY THERE.” He bolted out the room.

“Assistant Kang, what in the world…?” Contrary to what the haggard assistant just said, Zen and Jina rushed after him as he fumbled with his key-card and into Jina’s unit.

“Hey, you aren’t allowed—“ began Jina, but stopped when a shrill scream and the yowl of a surprised cat emanated from within the unit. Her eyes widened, and she strode into the unit angrily.

A scuffle was heard, and out came a fuming Jina Han, with Jae-jin Kang holding a small, red-headed mess by the arms.

The red-head, clad in a familiar pair of striped glasses, a French maid outfit, and layers of cat hair, looked up at Zen and smiled like a kid whose hand was caught in a cookie jar.

“Hiya, Zen _oppa._ Nice to see you up and about!”

Zen sneezed ten times after that.

 

 

 

“OW OW OW OW. HAVE MERCY ON ME, _AJUMMA_ ~!”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING _AJUMMA_!”

They had managed to keep the abused cat in the director’s bedroom, and Jae-jin efficiently removed all the cat hairs within the vicinity. They were presently in the living room, where Jina Han was mercilessly twisting the small red-head’s ears. She twisted so hard that Zen was scared that her ears might go out with a rip.

“JINA HAN PLEASE STOP THE PAIN. THE PAIN. OH THE PAIN~~~”

“H… how did you even get up here, Lucille?” stammered Jae-jin. “This is the most secure floor in the building…”

The redhead grinned, her eyeglasses flashing. “You ask that of me? Listen to me! No lock, key, or security system is safe from the goddess of illegal entry! Seven! Zero! Seven~!!”

The small girl started humming her own theme song, and Zen concluded that there must not be a single universe in the entire multiverse where Seven wasn’t insane.

Jina Han let her ears go, and Female Seven instantly put her hands up to rub the sore spots. “You are so mean, Jina. But I will still gladly accept you as my future catmom-in-law.”

“You are not allowed within 30 feet of Elliot 3rd. The very fact that you are here is a violation of the restraining order.”

“Heheh. It’s a good thing I’m already shady by nature,” she said almost proudly. She looked up at Jina, her eyes shining. “Anyway, I dropped by for a visit not only ‘cause I missed my dear Elly, but also ‘cause I needed to talk to V.”

Jina raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

“Yeah, yeah, Jae-jin told me on the messenger that she ain’t here,” said Seven, sighing. “I checked out her house too, and it was empty. I was… kinda hoping that _you_ would know where she is, Jina.”

“I see. All she told me was that she was going to the mountains to take photos. She does that frequently, especially for the past six months.”

 _Hm. The same as our V, huh,_ thought Zen as he watched Female Seven twiddling her thumbs. “W-well, as soon as you guys have a clue, can you tell me? It’s super, super important.”

“It’s about the hacker, isn’t it, Seven?” asked Jae-jin.

Upon the mention of the hacker, Seven froze for an instant. It was so quick that Zen barely noticed it. “Hm, is it, Jae-jin?” she said, smiling goofily. When the assistant hit her on the head lightly, she cried in exaggeration. “Gosh! I told you everything on the messenger, geez. It’s about the RFA app security.”

“Please speak in a straightforward manner next time,” grumbled Jae-jin, his glasses flashing. “Also, I’m sorry that we couldn’t help you with V.”

“Nah, I just went here on the off-chance anyway. I guess while we’re here, you can give me the files that you were talking about earlier.”

“Ah. About Glam Choi and Spencer. Wait a second.” Jae-jin stood up and moved to his briefcase, which was near the entrance of the unit.

Seven looked up at Zen and gave the same goofy grin that he knew. “So, _oppa._ How are you feeling? Is your brain still weird and multidimensiony?”

Zen sighed and nodded. “The only thing that’s the same for me is my beautiful self. But everything else is… slightly different.”

“Yikes. So everyone here’s the opposite gender, huh?”

“Yeah. You two and V and Yoosung—I mean, Yookyung are guys in the world I know,” he said, looking at both Jina and Seven, “while Jae-jin and MC are girls. Your appearances are similar in some sense, but different at the same time. For example, Seven, your real name is supposed to be Luciel Choi, and you’re definitely supposed to be taller…”

“Luciel Choi, huh…? Sounds kinda like Lucille.” She looked up at him in interest. “So am I, like, a gorgeous red-haired hackerman in the timeline that you’re from, _oppa?_ Oh, do I have guns and gadgets and a suit?!”

Zen imagined the Luciel Choi of his universe, with his barely-washed hoodie, crumpled jeans, and empty bottles of PhD Pepper all around. “Er. Well, you aren’t ugly, that’s for sure. And Luciel doesn’t tell us much about his job, so I don’t know about those other things…”

“Wow. I knew it. Good job, AU me,” whispered female Seven under her breath. Next she looked at Jina. “And you were calling _ajumma_ Jumin Han, right? So what’s he like???”

“Stop this nonsense,” grumbled Jina, but was interrupted by a hyper Seven. “WAIT DON’T TELL ME. DOES—DOES JUMIN HAN IS GAY?!”

Jina smacked the smaller girl over her head.

Zen laughed. “Honestly? There are rumours—“

“I knew it! OW”

“And I don’t know about that jerk, but we _totally_ don’t get along. He’s stuck-up, he doesn’t need to work hard, he tortures Jaehee—I mean, the Jae-jin in my universe—with an insane amount of cat-related and non-cat related projects, and he’s cold-hearted and rigid. He’s exactly like this heartless rich kid here, except he’s a little taller.”

Jina stared at him coldly as he spoke. Was there a bit of hurt in her eyes? _Nah, must be a trick of the light,_ concluded Zen.

Seven was clapping her hands in glee. “So… is he as pretty as Jina?”

“Pretty?” It wasn’t a term that he’d use for Jumin Han, certainly. He stared at the businesswoman, who was already looking away from him in protest of their conversation. Seeing her face, he noted that it was perfectly oval and symmetrical. And that doll-like skin—he can’t stop staring at it, describing it in his head. Perhaps he was jealous of her, given that he was a connoisseur of facial care products, so to speak. He wanted to ask her about her skin care regimen.

More than that, he wanted to touch it. And he hated himself for it.

“Well… he was in the cover of a business magazine before. So I suppose he’s good looking, in a different way that I am,” he finally answered.

“… you mean _this_ magazine?” Inexplicably, Seven was already holding the magazine in question, where a bikini-clad Jina Han lay almost seductively on a poolside lounge. It was probably the shock of seeing this suddenly, but Zen’s jaw dropped in reflex.

“Enough,” said Jina Han in exasperation. She snatched the magazine out of Seven’s hands and tossed it carelessly behind the couch. “I didn’t even want that shot to be there.”

“Hehe~ it’s fine though. It had the intended effect,” said Seven. She shot a mischievous look at Zen and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“Ugh. Whatever.” The Seven of this world enjoyed teasing him mercilessly too, it seemed. He felt sorry for girl Yoosung. “Oh. By the way, Seven, MC and Yoosung—I mean, Yookyung told you about that photo, right?”

Again, that freeze in the redhead’s body. This time it was more apparent. “Yeah~ _oppa’_ s pretty selfie. What about it?”

“Yeah… I read the chat logs and I saw that you were gonna clear up the photo to see that mystery girl with pink and white hair. What happened there?”

Without letting go of her goofy grin, Seven tilted her head oddly. “Ah~ about that. Well, I haven’t gotten around to doing it since I’ve been busy with the agency… and I don’t think I’ll have time to do it now that I have extra work with Jina.”

 Zen’s face fell. “O-oh. I see.”

From beside her, Jina turned to look at Seven oddly. “Really? I thought that you would do it, since MC asked you to do it.”

“Eheh~ I was planning to get around to it eventually but here we are!”

“Hm. Odd.” She looked at the doorway to observe Jae-jin, who took longer when he apparently had to answer his phone. “I have been thinking about this for a while, Seven. Perhaps it would benefit you to receive assistance from C&R for jobs outside of your agency work.”

“… eh? What do you mean, Jina?”

“A special information unit. To help you with RFA-related incidents. Such as finding the identity of the woman in the picture,” answered Jina.

Seven faltered. “O-oh. That’s not necessary at all, _ajumma~!_ Y-you know, I can make time for that. I think I’ve been wasting a lotta time playing LOLOL with Yookyung lately…” She laughed awkwardly and turned her attention to Zen. “B-but to be honest, _oppa,_ what if it’s just a random girl in the photo? I mean, crazy fans can sneak into private parties all the time. Heck, in the last BXS concert, I broke in their dressing room, ransacked their underwear and sold them on qBay for a small fortune…”

Zen sweatdropped. “I really didn’t need to know that, Seven. Besides, you shouldn’t use yourself as an example. I mean, you were able to break in Jina’s unit just now. Your breaking-in skills are at par. That’s why I’m worried whether that girl in the photo has the same skills as you.”

“Oh. There’s nothing the same about us! Haha.” Seven scratched the back of her head.

“It’s safer to study this than to let it go, Seven,” said Jina Han. “The RFA cannot afford any other mishaps.”

“Yeah, yeah. Slavedriver,” mumbled Seven. Finally, Jae-jin finished his phone call. He handed a flash disk to Seven, prompting her about their plans about Glam Choi and the information that she needed to find. Later on, the red-head left them, still clad in her maid outfit and everything, and disappeared. Shortly after, Jae-jin excused himself and took his leave.

And so, Zen was left with Jina Han. His accidental fiancée.

She stared at him curiously. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Hm. I had half-expected you to go on your silly spiel about _the beast inside_. Yookyung warned me that you might go on a rampage once we’re alone in a room together. Especially now that I've seen your face after you saw me in a bikini...”

“What the—Yookyung that girl!” Zen wanted to hide in embarrassment. What had the original Zen of this universe been doing with these girls?! “Look, I dunno what she’s talking about, but _you_ of all people don’t need to worry about things like that, okay? I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

“Hm.” She approached him and crouched in front of him, staring at him straight in the eyes.

 _This crazy woman is just testing you, Zen,_ he thought to himself, trying to keep himself from blushing or blinking or breathing hard. _Don’t lose. Don’t lose. Don’t lose._

_Don’t lose to her._

“All right. I trust you, Zen.” After what seemed like an agonizingly long time, she stood up and began walking to her bedroom. “You may go to your unit and rest. I shall call for you as necessary.”

The door slammed behind her. Without anything else to do or anybody else to talk to, he went back to his unit and flopped on the couch.

 _Stupid beast,_ he thought to himself. _Stupid-ass beast. Why the hell are you like this. Why is your heart beating like this…_

The familiar sound of the RFA Messenger distracted him from his reverie. It has been a while since he contributed to the chats, so he might as well update everybody else about his status with a selfie…

 

 

_ZEN has entered the chatroom._

MC: so what are you saying V?   
MC: am I understanding you right?   
V: … yes, MC.   
V: I thought about this for a long time   
V: and I think this is precisely the right time for it.   
V: **let’s hold the party.**

 

 

_Was this… another dream?_

How long has it been since he last woke up? He drifted in and out of a deep, irresistible sleep that he didn’t know which scenes were dreams or which ones were real. In both cases, his body was weak and frozen and he barely recognized the faces that he saw.

He struggled to open his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but something was rammed there, deep down to his trachea. His chest was rhythmically expanding to the tune of a machine beeping beside him.

Something warm was holding his hand. A figure in black, his head crouched low, his breathing quiet and rhythmical.

_“Jumin, wake up.”_

The something stirred beside him. As he struggled to get up, the man felt the stranger’s hand close over his more tightly, more possessively. Who… who is this guy? Where was everyone else? Where was the rest of the RFA?

His head hurt so much that his eyes closed by themselves.

 _“Yoosung.”_ The dark-clothed man spoke beside him and rubbed his eyes.

_“I can take over for a while, Jumin… you need to go home and rest.”_

_“I am fine. I was able to rest enough here.”_

_“No you’re not fine… come on, everyone else in the RFA is super worried about you, Jumin. Look at you, you look terrible.”_

RFA? This wasn’t the RFA. Where were Seven and MC and Yookyung and Jae-jin? And V?

Where was Jina?

_“You didn’t let MC or Seven take over when they came here…”_

_“They have plenty of other things to worry about. Like the hacker—that villain who did this to him—“_

_“… and Jaehee’s been working super hard at C &R without you… she’s not complaining or anything, she’s more worried that you’ll get sick too. And Elizabeth misses you so much, you know? You haven’t been home for days.”_

_“I can’t leave now. He needs me… doesn’t he?”_

Save for the beeping machines around him, a silence engulfed the room. Why was it so cold? Why couldn’t he move? Why did his head hurt like this?

 _“_ Hyung… _Zen would hate this, you know. He would want you happy and healthy… he’d hate himself if he woke up now and saw you like this.”_

_“…”_

_“At least take a shower, all right? And shave? Come on, you can leave Zen to me.”_

_“… all right. I’ll be back.”_

The dark haired figure took one last look at him. Zen saw the eyes of Jina Han staring at him. The man spoke, _“Come on Zen. Time to wake up.”_

He couldn’t wake up just yet. The beeping of the machines next to him hypnotized him, lulled him to sleep. He drifted off into unconsciousness moments later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... I'll try to pace these faster huhu. I tend to write too many details don't i hahaha orz  
> I imagine Seven and Saeran to look like the female lead of the anime Beyond the Boundary (Mirai Kuriyama) ^^ with their respective hair colours of course hehe  
> Thank you for reading this so far~


	6. Why Would It Not Be Silver

_MC has entered the chatroom.  
V has entered the chatroom. _

MC: am I seeing this correctly?   
MC: am I in the chatroom with the legendary shiny Cokemon, V?!   
V: -sweatdrop-   
V: Hello, MC.   
V: I hope this morning finds you well.   
MC: oh im good im good hehe   
MC: more importantly   
MC: how are u, V????   
MC: I didn’t get the chance to see u in the hosp   
MC: and now jaejin says ur in the mountains   
V: … yes.   
V: I apologize   
V: the signal here’s really bad   
V: and I don’t have a lot of time before it disappears again   
V: so, MC, let me make this quick   
V: this is for the benefit of all the members too   
MC: oh ok go ahead   
V: as you know, because of the issue with the hacker   
V: we had to postpone the party   
V: I apologize to you again, MC, because you worked so hard to invite everyone.   
MC: it’s fine   
MC: they were all sad about the delay but   
MC: they are all still waiting on the final date   
V: that’s good  
V: this will be a strange thing to hear from me, then   
V: given that we have all these new factors to face as an organization   
V: such as Zen’s hospitalization, and Jina’s engagement   
V: and given that we have not resolved the issue with the hacker completely yet   
V: I kept thinking about this   
V: that despite all these   
V:… **it was a mistake to postpone the party  
** V: I understand that it sounds selfish

_ZEN has entered the chatroom._

MC: so what are you saying V?   
MC: am I understanding you right?   
V: … yes, MC.   
V: I thought about this for a long time   
V: and I think this is precisely the right time for it.   
V: **let’s hold the party.**  
MC: -gasp-  
ZEN: -eh??-  
ZEN: what did I miss?? ;;  
V: hello Hyun.   
V: I hope you are doing well.   
ZEN: let me read back   
ZEN: … V, are you serious?   
V: yes.   
V: I understand that you may still be unwell   
V: so if it’s necessary   
V: you may not participate   
V: but MC, I will need your full effort for this party   
MC: whoa whoa   
MC: im just rly surprised hehe   
MC: when do you want the party to be held?...   
V: I will let you know soon   
V: but it definitely has to happen within March   
MC: so within the coming month huh   
MC: OTL  
ZEN: V, isn’t that too soon?   
ZEN: when it was with Rika   
ZEN: we spent half a year planning it… didn’t we   
V: you mean Ryung, right?  
V: I… apologize, Hyun. And MC   
V: I understand the situation   
V: and to resolve that, I have decided to hold a smaller party   
V: than the ones we previously held   
V: I cannot explain fully   
V: but we have a responsibility as an organization   
V: to hold this party in the soonest possible time   
ZEN: -eh??-  
MC: -tears-   
MC: all rght V   
MC: I’ll take ur word for it

 _707 has entered the chatroom._  
  
V: thank you, MC.   
707: V!!!!  
V: and thank you everyone   
V: I hope that we can work together to make this possible   
V: hello, Lucille   
707: unnie, u have a signal now?   
707: did u get my texts??   
V: yes   
V: you didn’t get my reply?   
707: …. No TT_TT   
707: anyway…   
707: what… do you think?   
V: … I’ll tell you in detail   
V: I need to call you for that   
V: but not now   
707: … okay.   
ZEN: OTL   
MC: OTL  
V: -sweatdrop-   
V: I understand, everyone   
V: for now, everyone else should work hard for the party.   
MC: roger dodger~

 _707 has left the chatroom._  
  
ZEN: I’ll work hard to get better to help everyone too   
V: thank   
V: dkjf  
V: sr

_V has left the chatroom_

MC: the signal’s that bad huh   
ZEN: idk, didn’t it look like a glitch   
MC: idk im dumb when it comes to computers   
ZEN: haha we’re the same then   
MC: I wonder what’s wrong with Seveny…. TT__TT   
ZEN: TT_TT   
ZEN: be strong, MC   
MC: still   
MC: **WE’RE HAVING A PARTY  
** MC: darn o darn im ao excitd ksjflkasj  
MC: **I NEED GUESTS. NOW**  
MC: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ  
MC: Beautiful Zen recommend me a guest!!!!!!!   
ZEN: !!!!!   
ZEN: er u also call me beautiful Zen here huh   
MC: -sweatdrop-  
MC: y r u surprised  
MC: u r the most beautiful guy I’ve ever seen   
MC: u had me questioning my sexuality at one point lol  
MC: no homo tho ┌( ಠ‿ಠ)┘  
ZEN: ;;  
ZEN: ok   
ZEN: how about the director of hair gel   
ZEN: apart from theatre   
ZEN: he’s also dabbled into horror films   
ZEN: did you watch A Tale Of Two Girl Cousins Trapped In A Truck To Busan   
MC: zOMG   
MC: i didn’t sleep for a week after that   
MC: I wasn’t sure who was gonna win. the zombies or the ghost girls or the single dad   
ZEN: he’s good at horror so u might wanna research on that when u invite him   
ZEN: there’s even horror elements in Hair Gel cos of it   
ZEN: I won’t spoil it but my character gets… scary stuff happening to him   
MC: lolol   
MC: I bet jaejin’s not gonna watch anymore since ur out of the play   
ZEN: … don’t remind me;;  
MC: but im sure there’s a DVD of the first run, right?   
ZEN: ya   
MC: anyways zen   
MC: i… need to get to work   
ZEN: the ice cream shop?  
MC: ya   
MC: tho, if things get busy for the party, I might need to file for a leave   
MC: ಥ_ಥ  
MC:  just… when things were stabilizing, huh….  
ZEN: haha   
ZEN: u have to prioritize ur job first and foremost MC!   
ZEN: if u need my help   
ZEN: I’m just here u know   
MC: hehe   
MC: I’m the party coordinator~!  
MC: I don’t want to let any of u down ^_^  
ZEN: you can do it, MC   
ZEN: -heart-  
MC: -shock-  
MC: my… my day has been blessed   
MC: I’ll make u proud beautiful hyung   
MC: well then!

_MC has left the chatroom.  
ZEN has left the chatroom. _

 

 

He wanted to rant to MC about the events of that morning with that cold-blooded Jina Han and girly Seven _. But even the V in this universe is pretty unpredictable, huh? Suddenly forcing MC into preparing for the party like that…_

 _And telling me to not participate. Who does he—I mean, she—who does she think I am, huh? I mean, I could help too, can’t I?_ He suddenly felt very irritated.

Suddenly, Zen had nothing left to do. On top of that, that jerk… check that, that jerk-lady made his brain all weird. _What was that about?! Why does she keep sticking her face into my face, like… like a big stupid jerk?!_

His heart fluttered once more. Annoyed, he hit himself at the chest hard, and was surprised at how painful it was.

 _Forget this._ He stood up, smelled himself, and took a shower. He scoured through the clothes available in his closet and found that most of them looked like the clothes that he typically wore, except that the brands were more high-end. He threw some gym clothes and shoes in a bag and headed for the mall.

He’s never been to this shopping mall before, but looking at all the high-end brands and shops made him feel dizzy. He looked for the gym, which in itself was another high-end project. Expensive-looking machines were arranged neatly all over the wide space.

The receptionist jerked in attention as he walked up to her. “H-hello! Good morning!” she said, an instant blush creeping to her face.

“Hello,” said Zen, internally thanking the gods that all the stress has not changed his beauty one bit. “I’m sorry, I’m not a member here, and I was hoping to see the rates?”

“N-no problem. Oh, what the heck am I doing!” The girl snatched therates away from him and bowed profusely. “Y-you’re Zen the musical actor, right? I’m a super b-big fan ever since I saw you on stage in _JalaPepper_ the musical!!!”

“Are you? It’s so nice to meet a fan,” answered Zen, his heart welling up with pride. “You guys mean the world to me. I mean it. Thank you for supporting me and my musicals.”

The girl gasped as if her world was about to explode. “I’m… I’m so happy! Oh my gosh, my heart is pounding!!!” She slapped herself so hard that it echoed all over the gym, and Zen had to stop her. “Oh my… what am I even doing!”

“Hey, like I said, it’s no problem,” said Zen. He’d seen fans do worse. “Although to be honest, I’ll have to seriously think about being a member of this gym. Thank you for your assistance.”

He turned to leave, but the stammering girl stopped him in his steps. “I’m sorry, I should have mentioned this earlier. Director Han gave us special instructions to let you use all of the facilities in the gym as much as you like.”

“… huh…?”

“Yes,” she said, a big grin on her face. “And may I just say—even though a lot of the girls in the fan club are super super angry—I’m so, so, _so_ happy that you found love with the Director! Congratulations on your engagement!”

 _Oh… the public knows already?! This quick?_ He struggled not to flinch. “Haha, so you know it already, huh? I thought Ju—Jina and I did a good job of keeping our engagement a secret~”

The girl gasped. “Oh, _oppa_ , were you planning a secret wedding??? That’s so romantic!” There were actual tears at the corners of her eyes. “And I’m so happy that this wasn’t just a rumour invented by the paparazzi or anything!!!”

“S-so, how did you find out about us?”

“W-well… I thought it was strange that as early as yesterday, Ms. Han’s group contacted the gym and all of the stores in this mall about you,” the girl began, flipping through her smart phone. She opened her Triptr app, did a quick search, and showed this to Zen. “But an hour ago, somebody posted this tript! And look, #JinaZENgagement is trending now!!!”

 _Tript? Hashtag? Trending??? What are all these new apps anyway?!_ The silver-haired man looked at the tript in question.

> @ZENdaily: Spotted: our bias ZEN was seen this morning with C&R heiress and corporate darling Jina Han hours after news of her secret engagement with a mystery man was leaked to the media. _http://onigirinews.co/..._

Attached was a photo of Zen and Jina Han walking into the C&R building side-by-side. He spotted a blurry Assistant Kang walking behind them. He knew that they were arguing about something when the photo was taken, but the photo showed them with their faces _super close_ to each other, and Zen’s cheeks flushed red, as if he were blushing.

 _Was this photo edited??? Were our faces really that close?!_ He thought in frustration that his cheeks might have really been red from being so mad at the trust-fund jerk.

_Also, how did this leak so fast?! It only happened a couple of hours ago!!!_

Zen continued scrolling through the feed, and saw that a few local news channels, many excited/upset Zen fans, and even fans of Jina Han had already posted about the topic, all of them ending with #JinaZENgagement, whatever that means. @ZEN_TRIPTR_BOT has been enthusiastically reposting the image.

“This… this is…”

“EXCITING, HUH???!!!”

Zen meant to say a lot of other things, but exciting wasn’t one of them. “Yeah, let’s go with that?? Why not?? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”

Eventually, after taking a selfie with the overenthusiastic fan, he was given locker keys and a quick tour of the facilities and afterwards he was left to run and stretch and lift and flex in a daze, all by himself. He didn’t even feel like taking a selfie after such a good workout. _And that’s saying something._

Later on, as he scoured the department stores for his masks, toners, night creams, eye serums, and such, he was practically _mobbed,_ with the latest products and expensive luxury goods being shoved at his face.

He had insisted on buying the products he used at home (in the mid-price range), and when he tried to pay for them with his own money, the cashier only shook her head and told him that it was fine. When he demanded to pay, the manager had to come over to calm him down and _still_ refused his money.

“It is an honour for you to shop in our humble store,” said the manager, “however, it is agreed upon by the management to have your purchases charged to one of the executive C&R accounts. I humbly apologize for the inconvenience.”

Translation: please just take your freebies else we’ll get in trouble with your jerk of a fiancée.

Zen relented, but refused to buy other stuff from there. He didn’t feel like looking through the other shops anymore since everywhere he looked, expectant clerks and overenthusiastic managers were hunting him down like prey, and some of the people who were shopping looked at him with a hint of recognition in their eyes.

 _I bet it’s not ‘cause of my musicals either,_ he thought to himself glumly.

He decided to go to the grocery store and buy vegetables. He tried not to mind all the stares and the indiscreet shutter clicks of the camera phones as he scoured through the produce. The cashier had a big smile on her face as she rang the salad veggies he bought, but surprisingly asked for a payment afterwards.

 _Oh. It’s ‘cause I mentioned that I wanted to do the groceries by myself, huh? So she was listening, after all._ And in her misguided way, Jina Han was letting him do what she thought he wanted.

He began to make his way towards the elevators that would connect him to the main C&R building, but a rather large entourage comprised of several bodyguards in dark suits suddenly appeared in front of him. At some point, somebody bumped into him, causing him to drop his eco bag full of lettuce and cabbage and tomatoes.

“Oh. Sorry,” he said, immediately crouching down to pick up his vegetables. Just then, he heard the unpleasant squelching sound of one of the tomatoes being crushed by a shoe, and the yell of distaste that came afterwards.

“Oh, yuck--?! Which clumsy idiot just spilled their tomatoes on the ground?”

Zen looked up with a bashful smile on his face. _Best thing to do in these situations is to smile and say sorry,_ he thought to himself.  “I’m so sorry. That would be me,” he said.

The guy who stepped on the unfortunate tomato was surrounded by about five bodyguards. He glared at Zen, was momentarily startled upon his great physical beauty _(yes, Zen was sure about that part)_ and then gave him a scowl. “You should be more considerate of others. Look at what you did to my designer shoe. Do you know how expensive this is?? It’s probably more expensive than your entire outfit right now!”

“Again, I’m sorry. If you want, I’ll pay to have it cleaned,” replied Zen, again giving one of his most charming smiles.

“Hmph.” The guy flipped his rose-coloured bangs and turned his nose up. “Forget it. You might mess it up. You could do me a favour by staying away.” The guy went ahead to the nearest store and announced loudly that he needed the most expensive outfit for his date tonight.

“All right. Again, I apologize.” _What an ass,_ he thought to himself. _The sooner I don’t see you, the better._

One way or another, he made it back to his unit. He put all his groceries and facial stuff away, went to his bedroom, and flopped on the bed, his face to the ceiling.

 _I don’t think I like being rich,_ was his first thought.

 _How am I going to survive being her fiancé?_ Was his next thought.

_I should… go back to the mall later…_

He drifted off to sleep shortly after that strange thought entered his mind.

 

 

 

Jina Han stared at her smartphone’s screen, comprehending the conversation that had just passed.

 _“My dear, I realize from our meeting yesterday that perhaps I appeared uncharacteristically contrary and antagonistic,”_ her father the Chairman said. _“We would like to make it up to you. Dinner and drinks at 7 PM at your place? We look forward to seeing you both!_ ”

The smartphone’s clock read 1803H. She stood from her desk and started sprinting, much to the shock of the assistants and executives she passed along the way.

 _‘We’ means Father and that woman and that unbearable man, Spudson,_ she thought while gritting her teeth. _That’s barely enough time to prepare dinner and wine and to get dressed…_

And barely enough time to brief Zen. Jina was convinced that they were trying to catch her off-guard on purpose.

She sent messages to her personal chef, her nutritionist, and her consulting sommelier as she raced to the elevator. Along the way, she ran into and almost toppled Assistant Kang, who was carrying folders with variable thickness.

“M-Ms. Han??” he cried in surprise as he struggled to stay upright.

“There’s a Spudson-related crisis, Assistant Kang,” she said sharply.

“O—oh. I’ll come with you, Ms. Han. Let me just put these cat projects—“

“No. Stay here. If Zen fails, I will call for you for backup.”

“But Ms. Han—“ began the harassed assistant. She didn’t hear what he was saying as the elevator doors closed behind her.

As soon as she reached the penthouse, she brisk-walked her way to Zen’s apartment and without hesitation, opened the door using her key-card. “Zen, prepare yourself. I need you. Now.”

She wasn’t completely prepared for what she saw. He had his bare back and bare bottom facing her, and he was towelling off his damp hair. He had his eyes on the TV as she barged in, and he sharply turned and faced her with a horrified expression on his face.

“W-W-W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???!!!” The silver-haired man turned beet red and covered his nether regions with a towel as quickly as he could. He was so flustered that he dropped the towel a couple of times before he was able to wrap it securely around his waist.

She knew that Zen had an attractive, marketable body that came with his attractive, marketable face. His trapezius muscles and rhomboids and deltoids and triceps were very well-defined. His gluteus areas were more muscle than fat. When he turned around, Jina was able to appreciate the firm shape of his pectoralis muscles, the well-defined lines of his rectus abdominis muscles, and the enticing V-shaped lines of the inguinal areas, and…

“Hm. So it’s silver down there too, huh,” she said, putting one finger to her chin thoughtfully.

“You perverted robot woman!” screamed Zen, rushing into his bedroom and slamming the door shut behind him. “Use the doorbell!!!”

“I had no time. It is already 1814 hours. We have a mere 46 minutes to prepare before they come and scrutinize our relationship.” She moved closer to the door and leaned against the frame, listening to the sounds of cloth being hastily worn.

“They? Who they?”

“The Chairman, Glam Choi, and that man they want me to marry instead of you.”

Zen opened the door slowly and stared at her thoughtfully. He was dressed this time, and staring at him up close, Jina was able to appreciate the lines of his muscles through the shirt. “Oh. Is this you being nervous, Ms. Han?” he asked, teasingly.

She frowned in response. “This isn’t a time for jokes, Zen. I hurried here so we can practice.”

“Practice what, exactly?”

“Acting affectionate. Or as the kids say, lovey-dovey.”

Zen made a nauseated face as he listened to her speak. “Man, I really didn’t want to hear that kinda language from you, Jina. It really doesn’t suit you since you’re a robot.”

“Then what sort of language should I use?”

He shrugged. “Just be yourself. I think if you’re with a guy who really loves you and wants to marry you, he wouldn’t try to change your language or the way you act or whatever unless that’s what you want. _Aish,_ a guy like that would be as good as the Buddha, won’t he?”

“I’m Christian, so I don’t understand.” And all the love things went over her head too. Don’t people act different from what they truly are when they’re in-love?

Zen dropped his head. “Okay. We’ll be fine, Jina, I’ll handle all the acting. All I ask of you is to not pull back or physically assault me when I have to touch you. Okay?”

“Understood.”

“Right, so another thing we have to do is to make sure that our stories match when they ask us.”

“What stories?”

“Our love story, of course,” said Zen, as if he were explaining things to a child. “You want this to be convincing, right? I don’t think your dad would want to hear that you proposed to me while I was in the hospital, questioning reality, just so you could avoid marrying some other dude.”

He was right. And so they sat down and drafted their personal history. They agreed upon the half-truth that two years ago, V and Ryung introduced them, after which they became friends, eventually lovers. He then proposed to her twenty-seven days ago, during their first anniversary dinner. 

It was kept a secret unintentionally. Jina was supposedly planning to introduce him to the Han Clan this week, until Zen got hospitalized and they had to postpone it.

“This is fine. This is convincing enough,” said Jina as they finalised the last few details of their story. The tension in her body significantly lessened. All they had to do now was go to dinner and act their hearts out.

“Ah… yeah, about that.” Zen grabbed a small box next to his bed and handed it to her. “Y… you better wear this.”

Jina looked at him questioningly and cautiously took the box from him. As she opened it, the gleam of a diamond on silver shone under the room lights. “… you bought me a ring,” she stated factually.

Zen’s face started turning pink again. She noted that it usually happened when he was speaking with her and was going into the extremes of one of his emotions. “L-look, you have to look the part of an engaged woman, okay?! And I didn’t exactly buy it, ‘cause none of the stores would let me pay…”

“Except the supermarket, right?”

“Y—yeah. You know, you really misunderstood me when…” he began, but trailed off when she wore the ring on her finger.

“What?” she asked, when he didn’t finish his sentence.

“It looks good on you,” he answered quietly.

 _Hmm._ It was of a modest size and cut—certainly not as grand as the24 karat diamond-encrusted ring that her father gave Glam Choi (which she enjoyed flaunting every waking moment). But she had to agree that it suited her well.

“Well… we should be going to your unit now, right? We better start setting up the tables and such…” He walked ahead of her and was making a point not to look back.

 

 

 

Seven stared at her smart phone angrily. “Ring,” she commanded.

The phone remained silent.

“Ring. Pretty please with honey Buddha chips on top.”

The screen remained dark and silent.

“Come on. Extra PhD Pepper too?”

The phone just refused to ring. She sighed. Where the heck was V, anyway? As the hacker thought about the picture more and more, her anxiety grew and grew, and she couldn’t concentrate on her work.

_V… are you telling me that this is really…_

_No… V told me that she’s safe. There’s no way… no way, right?_

“Oi, you little brat. Why are you just sitting there talking to a cell phone and not working your ass off like you should?”

“Kya~!” The girl scrambled through her pile of empty bags of Honey Buddha chips. The taller woman caught her by the hood of her jacket. Her loose jorts almost fell off her hips as she was suspended in mid-air. “M-Marcus _oppa,_ if you keep manhandling me like this, isn’t this sexual harassment?”

“Quit calling me Marcus, for god’s sake.” Vanderwood easily tossed the smaller hacker towards a nearby chair and freaked out once she saw the new pile of garbage that Seven made for herself. “H-how did you make so much junk in such a short period of time?! I cleaned just an hour ago!!!”

“Eheh~” Seven put her tongue out cutely. “You can do anything if you believe in yourself~”

Vanderwood growled as she bent over to pick up the empty bags and bottles and dirty laundry scattered all over the floor of Seven’s workroom. As she did, her heaving bosoms threatened to pop out of her V-neck shirt. _Show off,_ thought Seven jealously.

“Come on, don’t just sit there, get back to work! If you don’t finish that by morning, you know the boss will have both our heads!”

“Ehh~ can’t you ask them to extend, Francesca? It’s _so hard_ to get inspiration to get back to work~~”

The older woman sighed and tossed her auburn hair over her shoulder. “Impossible. Look, I get it. You have crazy things going on with that RFA group or whatever. I feel sorry for you guys, really I do. I even gave you lots of time yesterday to bug all of your friends’ houses.”

Seven yelped as Vanderwood turned her computer chair around and pushed her towards her workstation, where her neglected agency work was displayed across ten screens.

“But let me repeat this again. If you don’t finish on time, our _really important_ client gets upset, and then we both die. Got that?”

“Uwah~ Got it…” Seven sniffled dramatically before facing Vanderwood again with a perverted smile on her face. “But first… inspiration. Come on, let me grope them again~”

“NO! For the last time, groping them won’t make yours any bigger!”

“I HAVE TO TRY OPPA. HAVE MERCY ON ME.”

Later on, after being hit on the head several times by the harassed Vanderwood, Seven resumed half-heartedly typing out a storm of codes. She stopped in her tracks when her phone rang.

_Incoming Call: Hero M.C. <3_

She sighed sadly, silenced her phone, and resumed her work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He put a ring on it lol


	7. Thank You For Cooperating With Me So Far

_MC has entered the chatroom.  
YOOKYUNG <3 has entered the chatroom. _

YOOKYUNG<3: MC~!  
YOOKYUNG<3: -shocked-  
YOOKYUNG<3: Are we really going to have another party???!  
MC: **YES WE IS**  
MC: I’ve already answered a bunch of emails.  
MC: So far, we are expecting ten guests and their entourage. Including ur fav author, Yookyungie  <3  
YOOKYUNG<3: WOW!  
YOOKYUNG<3: you’ve managed a lot in such a short time, MC oppa!  
YOOKYUNG<3: you should quit ur ice cream shop job and just be an events manager or something  
YOOKYUNG<3: that’s where tha money is!  
MC: $_$  
MC: hahaha  
MC: nah I like sweets too much to let the ice cream job go  
MC: ya know my boss lets me invent new stuff for the menu. Parfaits n sundaes n stuff  
YOOKYUNG<3: that’s so cool, oppa  
YOOKYUNG<3: a bunch of my classmates post about ur shop on InstaGlam  
YOOKYUNG<3: the photos always look great~  
MC: u should drop by, yookyung  
YOOKYUNG<3: nah im on a diet  
YOOKYUNG<3: too much ham TT_TT  
YOOKYUNG<3: but u should have an ice cream bar in the party!  
YOOKYUNG<3: we should ask Jae-jin about that

_Jae-jin Kang has entered the chatroom._

Jae-jin Kang: -weep-  
MC: what’s wrong, Super Assistant Jae-Jin???!!!!  
Jae-jin Kang: … Ms. Han told me she was in a crisis earlier  
YOOKYUNG<3: a crisis?!  
Jae-jin Kang: yes.  
Jae-jin Kang: It sounded like it was related to Glam Choi and that man called Spencer.  
YOOKYUNG<3: yikes  
YOOKYUNG<3: they aren’t gving up huh  
YOOKYUNG<3: even when #JinaZENgagement was trending!!!  
Jae-jin Kang: -sigh-  
Jae-jin Kang: I wonder how that hashtag came to be…  
YOOKYUNG<3: I dunno but  
YOOKYUNG<3: it just reeks of seven doesn’t it (´꒳`)  
YOOKYUNG<3: I mean. She made the triptr bot that spams zen’s photos right  
MC: lolol ya that sounds like seven sailing her glorious ship  
MC: all hands on deck!  
Jae-jin Kang: （￣へ￣）;; anyways  
Jae-jin Kang: I received word that Chairman Han was bringing guests over to her home tonight.  
Jae-jin Kang: I was given orders by Ms. Han to standby ‘in case Zen fails’  
MC: -weep-  
YOOKYUNG<3: -weep-  
YOOKYUNG<3: -weep-  
YOOKYUNG<3: -weep-  
Jae-jin Kang: -weep-  
Jae-jin Kang: please, Ms. Han, Zen…  
Jae-jin Kang: please get along well tonight  
Jae-jin Kang: please don’t strangle each other

_Jina Han has entered the chatroom._

Jae-jin Kang: -gasp-  
YOOKYUNG<3: Unnie!!!  
MC: NOONA  
MC: just think lovey-dovey thoughts!  
MC: you got this!

_Jina Han sent an attachment: engagementring.mp4_

Jina Han: Zen gave this to me as part of my costume as his betrothed.  
Jina Han: we’re about to flaunt our faux engagement.

_Jina Han has left the chatroom._

Jae-jin Kang: …  
MC: …  
YOOKYUNG<3: …  
MC: she totally went in here to brag  
MC: didn’t she  
YOOKYUNG<3: yeah  
YOOKYUNG<3: totally  
Jae-jin Kang: I  
Jae-jin Kang: feel like I am about to faint

_Jae-jin Kang has left the chatroom_

MC: I think I’ll drop by the C&R office  
MC: ya knw. Just in case jaejin dies of stress or sth  
YOOKYUNG<3: ya good idea  
YOOKYUNG<3: I’m… going back to LOLOL  
MC: see ya

 _MC has left the chatroom ._  
YOOKYUNG <3 has left the chatroom.  


 

 

Zen and Jina made it to the unit. As she expected, the food was all prepared, the wine was chilled, and the table was set. A butler stood quietly nearby and bowed to her as the couple made their way to the living room.

 _Couple?_ She thought to herself. _Strange. Even the language of my narrative is changing._

Minutes later, the doorbell rang, and in went the three biggest roadblocks to Jina’s freedom. Glam Choi made a high-pitched noise as she spread her arms and embraced Jina, noisily kissing her on both cheeks. “Jina, _darling._ You look absolutely wonderful.” She glanced at Zen, who was standing beside her. “And pardon me, darling. I’m embarrassed to say, I seem to have forgotten your name!”

Without showing signs of being affected, Zen gave her a brilliant smile and reached for Glam’s hand. “Oh, no need to be embarrassed~ we have not been introduced properly. My name is Hyun Ryu.” Smoothly, he moved to kiss Glam’s hand, who seemed to revel in the attention _._

“Oh, Hyun~ What a wonderful name,” she said. “It suits such a wonderful face!”

“Nowhere near as dazzling as yours!”

“Now, now Glam, don’t hog the lad,” said Chairman Han, moving closer to the couple. He kissed Jina on the cheek and offered his hand to Zen. “Pleasure to properly meet you, Mr. Ryu. I can’t apologize enough for last time.”

The actor shook his hand vigorously. “It’s nothing, Mr. Han. And please, call me Hyun.”

“I’m relieved to see you out of the hospital. And really quickly too. By the way, I vaguely remember your stage name, Hyun?”

“Yeah. Zoo, or something.” The guy with dark pink hair made his way towards the group. “Hey, Jina~ you are stunning tonight.” Before Jina could stop him, he had already kissed her cheek, making it as audacious as possible.

He then looked at Zen in the eye, a confident smirk over his mouth. “Hey now, Mr. Zoo. I think we met earlier in the mall, correct? You’re the tomato guy, right?”

“It’s Zen,” said Jina sharply, at the same time giving a questioning glance at Zen.

It looked like Zen had just realized it at that moment too. “Oh, it’s you! You’re right.” He laughed bashfully. “I really am sorry. I’m embarrassed until now. How is your shoe, by the way?”

“I had a buddy of mine clean it out for me. You need professionals for designer brands like that, see? So don’t worry your lil head about it,” said the guy, patting Zen on the back. “If you had told me that you were Jina Han’s fiancé, I wouldn’t have said those mean things to you! Why were you doing the groceries by yourself, anyway? I have maids to do that kinda tedious stuff for me.”

“I like doing some things by myself…” Zen easily answered. Jina wondered whether this was the part that Zen would mouth off the guy for being spoiled and rich, like he does with her when she tells the RFA facts about her daily life. Surprisingly, this time Zen kept his composure. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name?”

“Spencer, don’t be rude to Hyun~” said Glam Choi. “You have to excuse him. He tends to be a little intense. But you know how it is. Intense men tend to be really great lovers~” She was looking at Jina as she said this, and even winked at her.

She felt the bile rising to her throat.  “Let us proceed to dinner,” she said stiffly, turning to the dining area. She would have left everyone behind, were it not for Zen who held her hand and forced her to slow down.

As promised, she held her urge to pull her hand away, but stiffened immediately. She stiffened even more when she felt Zen move his mouth next to her ear. It was almost _touching_ it, she thought frantically, until she heard him whisper, “Relax. We got this.”

He gave her a brilliant smile then and didn’t let go of her hand. He led her to the dining area, putting one hand to the small of her back so naturally that she couldn’t help but be impressed.

_Zen is very convincing playing his role as my fiancé. Very professional. Anyone who’s watching us now must think that we’re a happy couple._

Yet, observing everyone as they took their places at the table, she felt the strong layer of doubt on all three of her guests. She took the place at the head of the table, and Zen sat on her right hand side. As expected, that rose-haired moron hurried and took the spot on her left-hand side. Glam sat beside her student, and her father took the spot on the other side of the table.

The butler began serving each course. Much to her relief, as the appetizers came in, Zen seemed to know which utensils to use, and was carrying on a lively conversation with Glam Choi about her acting roles. That is, until she changed the topic.

“You know what I’ve realized after such a long time in this industry, Hyun?” Not even touching her food, she looked directly into his face with a mysterious, somewhat provoking smile on her face. “The best actors tend to be the best at _lying,_ don’t they?”

Jina briefly glanced at Spencer, who again had that annoying smirk on his face.

“Really? That’s an interesting take on it,” answered Zen brightly.

“Being an actor, Hyun should know about this too. People with no experience in acting think it’s easy to take on a role, whether it’s as co-actor or a complete stranger’s friend… family… lover. But it takes a special sort of _liar_ to pull it off, don’t you think?” She laughed smoothly and swirled her wine glass in one hand, not taking her eyes off Zen. “And the most talented actors get into that _lie_ so naturally, so quickly. If they’re _really_ talented, they can start believing that lie themselves. Well, of course, until the director yells CUT!”

Jina cut through her lettuce so vigorously that the edge of the knife scraped against the plate with a _skree,_ making the entire table flinch.

A pale hand suddenly touched her right hand gently, and she saw that it was Zen’s. “ _Calm down”,_ he seemed to say with his eyes. _How is he doing that with his eyes?_  

“I suppose you’re right, Glam. I’ve never thought of them as lies though.” Without missing a beat, Zen warmly returned Glam’s gaze. “After all, actors always have writers, directors, musicians, and artists at their back, all of them creating their own truths for us to put forth to the stage for everyone else to enjoy. I’ve never thought of them as lies, but as the combined truth created by those involved in the creative process. Well, that’s just my opinion.”

Glam only smiled back. “Aren’t you an optimistic beauty! I’d love to work with you on stage someday, Zen.”

“Come on, teach, you guys took too long talking about heavy stuff like acting,” said Spencer, putting down his glass noisily on the table. “I’m really much more interested in talking about Jina!”

“Oh, of course! Jina is wonderful, isn’t she?” Zen looked at her with such soft eyes that the background might as well have blurred and showed pretty pink flowers in bloom, the scene was so cheesy. “I understand why you would want to talk about her, Spencer.”

“Hm… if you’re trying to make me jealous… it’s working, _hyung,”_ said Spencer, giving Jina a big smile. “I wonder how a guy like you is able to get a smart, beautiful woman like this one~!”

“That’s right, Jina. You surprised me back there in the hospital, as I’ve never met Hyun personally before,” said the Chairman, suddenly with renewed interest in the conversation. “How long have you two known each other?”

“Two years,” answered Jina automatically.

“Two years already? You certainly took your time introducing me.”

Zen cut in smoothly, “It’s because we started out as friends. We met while working together in the RFA, so we started out as colleagues, then best friends… and then I inevitably fell in-love with her.”

_Should you really look at me like that, Zen? The flowers are beginning to blind me._

“We’ve only been together like that for a year, Mr. Han. Jina wanted to introduce us soon, but I just _had_ to get hospitalized, don’t I?”

“I see. Those things can’t be helped.” The Chairman nodded sagely. “So when did you two get engaged?”

“Twenty-seven days ago,” answered Jina, again automatically.

“It hasn’t been that long then, has it, Jina?” said Glam, eyes twinkling. “You know, when your father proposed to me, it was simply _magical._ He brought me to the Halton Suites, where he surprised me with a hundred dozen roses and pink champagne and a view of the biggest fireworks that spelled, _GLAM CHOI, WILL YOU MARRY ME_? I had no choice but to say yes!” She sighed and squeezed the Chairman’s hand. “So… I was wondering how Hyun proposed to you?”

 _All right. We discussed the most realistic proposal thoroughly._ With her best effort, she gave a beaming smile to all of them and clasped her hands in front of her, subtly showing off the gleam of her ‘engagement’ ring. “It certainly wasn’t as… grandiose as what my father did for you, Glam, but it was magical all the same. That is… twenty-seven days ago, Zen brought me to a hill and proposed to me and I said yes.”

The guests tilted their heads curiously.

“… that’s it?” asked Spencer. A condescending smile directed at Zen was creeping up to his face.

Zen laughed. “I’m embarrassed now that I heard the Chairman’s story, but that’s how it really happened. That hill just happens to be our favourite dating spot…”

As the actor retold the story in such simple terms, Jina was… _amazed_ at how she was able to envision the scene that never happened: the chill of the air, the stars in the night sky, the sparkle of the city lights like diamonds. Her favourite wine, which was as red and as sweet as his eyes. The awkward way that Zen fell to his knees, bungled all the lines he wanted to say, and the cheesy proclamation of his love for her.

The shine of the diamond on the ring of her finger. The overwhelming happiness that ensued.

“… somehow, she found it in her giving heart to say _yes_ to a guy like me. You should have seen how beautiful she was that night.” He delivered it so efficiently that even Glam Choi was sighing out of romance by the end of it. The cynical smirk that was on Spencer’s face dropped.

“Oh my, Jina, aren’t you a lucky girl~!” said Glam. “If such a good looking man were to propose to me before I met your father, I would have such a hard time saying no!”

“Zen isn’t all about looks,” Jina answered. “I do like his personality and his initiative too. We just get along well, don’t we, _jagi?_ ”

One of Zen’s lower eyelids _twitched_ subtly when she used the term of endearment. _You didn’t let all the other insults from these people faze you, but this is what ticks you off? Interesting._

Somehow, after that conversation, the attacks seemed to decrease. They were able to finish the remaining courses without any further problems. Zen was even able to nag Jina for not eating her green peppers, which caused everybody else on the table to laugh.

Before they knew it, dinner was over. The couple stood with their guests near the doorway as they put on their coats.

“Thank you for the wonderful evening, Jina,” said the Chairman, patting her on one shoulder. “And to you too, Hyun. Thank you for taking good care of my daughter.”

“Thank you as well, Mr. Han. It’s an honour,” answered Zen, bowing politely.

The corner of the Chairman’s mouth turned up slightly. _Was this a good sign?_ “I suppose before I completely approve of your engagement, another get-together with you two is in order. I’ll contact you soon about it, Jina.”

“Oh~ Spencer and I simply _must_ be invited next time, _yeobo~_ ”

“Of course. That’s a given.” Chairman Han laughed, and the trio made their way towards the exit.

 

 

Later on, Jina let the other staff leave the unit. When they heard the elevator go _ding,_ Zen made an exaggerated gasp and practically collapsed on her couch. “OH MY GOD. It’s finally over! That was the toughest dinner I’ve ever had to sit through!!!!”

He buried his head under the pillows dramatically and was muttering some indistinct things. Jina rolled her eyes, a glass of wine in hand. “Do not be overdramatic, Zen. You did well.”

“Of course I did well, there’s no question about that.” Zen’s face popped up from under the pillows to look at her. “You did pretty well too. I didn’t expect you to call me _jagi._ ”

“Why not? The role called for it.”

“Just that… we didn’t talk about it… I guess.”

“I know how to improvise too.” Jina watched him from a distance as he mumbled something about how fortunate he was that he remained so beautiful under such intense scrutiny. “You certainly were very _liberal_ when it comes to improvisation.”

“That?” He shrugged. “No-one would be convinced if I didn’t say those cheesy things. You were too damn robotic, trust fund. But,” he turned around with a look of concern on his face. “Were you… uncomfortable? ‘Cause if you were, I’ll tone it down next time…”

She shook her head. “I was not. I understood that it was part of the charade and that there was no true meaning behind it.”

“Right. Right.”

Jina took a can of beer from her refrigerator and tossed it towards him. He caught this with one hand. “You barely drank the wine. I had these in stock, just in case.”

Zen appeared flustered for a while, but mumbled his thanks. He opened the can and chugged it gratefully, as if he were being given water after a jog through the desert.

 _His neck is pretty long, isn’t it._ Jina thought to herself as she watched him gulp down the contents of the can.

As he finished with an _ahh_ , he caught her staring at him intently. “Wh-what is it this time?”

“… nothing,” said Jina. She stretched her body and ambled leisurely towards her bedroom. “You have about ten seconds before I reach my room and Elliot 3rd runs up to greet you. I suggest that you get going as quickly as you could.”

“!!! You wouldn’t,” began Zen, but as she walked up to her room, he had already scrambled out of her unit.

As soon as Elliot 3rd saw her, he mewled welcomingly. In the distance, she heard Zen sneezing violently.

“Ah~ all my stress and exhaustion goes away as soon as I look into your regal eyes, Elliot 3rd,” she said in a small, cutesy voice that she reserves just for the most beautiful Persian cat in all of the history of Persian cats.

“Meow. Meow meow meow. Meow?”

“Oh, darling, no need to be jealous of that silver-haired fool. You know you’re my one and only silver-furred Prince.” She lifted him up and carried him to bed. “Still… if you ask me to explain why I enjoy tormenting him so much, I couldn’t give you a clear answer.”

“Meow.” The cat blinked at her knowingly, but before he mewled another retort, he commenced to purr happily instead.

 

 

 

“So, Glam, what do you think?”

They were in Chairman Han’s manse in the upscale areas of the city. The old man was tired and had retired for the night, leaving Glam free to spend the rest of the evening with her schemes and her plots.

“… Jina Han does not fool me one bit.” She blew a puff of smoke in between dark red lips. She rolled the slim cigarette in between her fingers as she thought. “But that handsome fellow is something to contend with.”

“Eh~ _that_ guy?” Spencer scowled at the mention. “I get that he has the looks, but he doesn’t have anything else—no brains, no appeal. It’s easy to see that he’s clinging on to Jina Han and her money for dear life. You think I could lose to an airhead like that?”

“Did you see how the old man looked on the way home?”

“Yeah. He said that he’d have to think about accepting their stupid attempt at an engagement.” Spencer smirked.

Glam looked at him sharply. “That’s what I’m worried about. That young boy is so charismatic, he even had my darling moneybags _consider_ accepting the sham.” And Glam didn’t want to admit it, but the old man looked comfortable around those two. _Too comfortable._ “We even missed out on attacking first in the media… well, no matter. If we let this continue, you can very well say goodbye to your sweet Jina.”

Spencer sighed. “Y-yeah. Money can make anything sweet I guess. Say, sis, don’t you think that she’s _frigid?_ I mean I get that she’s hot and all, but she hasn’t fallen for any of _this_ yet.” He gestured to his own face and his body. “I don’t know about you, but… I’m getting serious lesbian vibes.” He made a cringing motion, which made Glam guffaw.

“Even if she were to swing that way, brother dear, please work hard to seduce her.” Glam put the cigarette in between her lips once more and let the gears in her head turn. “And I have just the thing to put our sweet, silver-haired angel in his place.”

She unlocked her brand-new limited edition lavender-gold yPhone, searched for a number, and threw it in Spencer’s direction. Her brother stared at the number in question and smirked.

“Time to call our little friend Kyungju for help, eh?”

 

 

 

MC stared at his phone glumly. Seven has ignored his third phone call. She sent him a typo-ridden text that she was busy with agency work and that Marcus Vanderwood 3rd would seriously kill her if she continued slacking off, but she’ll call him as soon as she could.

He had known Seven and the rest of the RFA for less than a month, but his attachment to them was strong and instantaneous, like a powerful magnet. He’s never had such a sure, strong connection with such a diverse group of people in such a short period of time, and he was sure that it was fate and magic and all of this was meant to be.

Especially with Seven. The first time he saw her on the messenger, when he was doubting everything as a scam, he fell so hard for her that if he jumped off the Lotte World Tower, this fall would still be seven times as bad.

And Seven… actually _responded_ to him. A pretty, smart girl like that who could change the world by hacking into its mainframe acknowledged a plain-looking nobody like him who only knew how to make ice cream look pretty in a bowl… and also how to swindle rich people into coming to The Party by Noogling the answers to all the inane questions they ask of him.

_Seriously… who would have thought trusting a shady hacker could lead to this._

_But why does it feel like I’m back to zero._ At that moment, the so-called hero with an interchangeable face, MC, faced a crisis. For the past few days, the girl he liked so much, Lucille Choi, somehow wouldn’t acknowledge his existence apart from the group chatrooms in the RFA.

 _Was it something I did? Or said? Is she in trouble? Or did she just get sick of a nobody like me?_ Disheartened, he scrolled through all the unanswered text messages in his outbox, and all the unanswered calls through his call log. He sighed, dropped the phone on his bed, and glared at it once more.

“Ring,” he commanded.

As soon as he said it, his phone beeped in response. He was so flustered that he yelped and kicked the phone away from him. Luckily it bounced harmlessly on one of his pillows.

He grabbed it, hoping it was a text from his goddess, but it was only the RFA messenger app, notifying him that a new chatroom has opened.

He prided himself on being able to participate in 80% of all the chats of the group, and overenthusiastically he opened this one. He regretted it as soon as he did when the background broke into an unfamiliar backdrop, and he realized he had fallen for the bait again.

_MC has entered the chatroom.  
Unknown has entered the chatroom. _

Unknown: hello, oppa. :)  
MC: don’t call me that;;  
MC: what do you want this time  
Unknown: touchy, touchy, MC  
Unknown: or should I say  
Unknown: min…  
MC: that’s enough  
Unknown: -clap-  
Unknown: I’m sorry, oppa.  
Unknown: don’t be mad at me  
Unknown: just ‘cause that stupid redhead won’t answer ur texts ^^  
MC: …  
Unknown: **if it were me, I’ll call you all the time**  
Unknown: **hear your voice**  
Unknown: **and just be happy all the time, with you ^^**  
Unknown: that bimbo doesn’t even know how to treat u right  
MC: leave her alone, please  
MC: you still haven’t told me what you want  
Unknown: sorry.  
Unknown: patience :)  
Unknown: I want to say  
Unknown: how much I miss you  
Unknown: it’s been so long since I last saw you in person ****  
Unknown: I know that you must be having a hard time  
Unknown: being surrounded by those idiots  
Unknown: being forced into being their party coordinator  
Unknown: **and… seeing so many misfortunes happening**  
MC: …  
MC: you’re really her, aren’t you  
MC: the girl in the photo  
Unknown: -gasp-  
Unknown: did you… did you think someone like me could do such a terrible thing like that…?  
MC: don’t joke around  
MC: zen could have seriously gotten hurt  
MC: what did you do? Was it drugs? Hypnosis?  
Unknown: i…  
Unknown: I only want to save everyone  
Unknown: you, especially, MC  
Unknown: Saviour tells me I’m obsessed with you  
Unknown: and that you’re bad for me but  
Unknown: I miss you so much  
Unknown: **I miss you so much…**  
MC: …  
MC: I don’t know what to say  
Unknown: that’s okay. :)  
Unknown: what I want to say is this:  
Unknown: thank you for cooperating with me so far :)  
Unknown: and I’m so glad  
Unknown: that the party is finally happening…  
Unknown: please work hard, MC  
Unknown: not for that manipulative snake, V, or for that redheaded bimbo  
Unknown: please work hard for me :)  
MC: …  
Unknown: and… it goes without saying  
Unknown: that if you tell anybody about our talks  
Unknown: **no-one will believe you**  
Unknown: … I’ll be seeing you soon.

_Unknown has left the chatroom._

MC: soon? Soon where?  
MC: … shit.

_MC has left the chatroom._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> disclaimer: I'm not Korean and I don't speak hanggul hehe. all the terms of endearment i just googled lols. pls let me know if my usage was wrong ^^  
> all of your comments make me so happy~! im about two chapters ahead and the drama's rly building up. im hoping to finish this in less than ten chapters more orz


	8. No Choice But To Work With What We Have

_ZEN has entered the chatroom._  
_Jina Han has entered the chatroom._  
_MC has entered the chatroom._

MC: Noona! Hyung!  
MC: How did it go?  
ZEN: hey, MC  
MC: did you guys  
MC: talk back to the father  
MC: “APPA he’s the one I love~ I’ll never marry that potato spud”  
MC: and threaten to elope??  
Jina Han: …  
ZEN: -sweatdrop-  
ZEN: MC are you drunk  
MC: hahahahaha  
MC: **hahahahahahahahahahaha**  
MC: -weep-  
ZEN: oi, what’s the matter  
ZEN: are you okay  
MC: n… nothing  
MC: please tell me a happy story  
MC: that true love is real  
ZEN: -gasp-  
Jina Han: let me guess.  
Jina Han: in a fit of crippling depression and self-doubt  
Jina Han: Seven has once again ignored your pleas for affection and attention  
Jina Han: and you seek validation of the existence of romantic love  
Jina Han: in the outcome of our faux engagement  
Jina Han: as it has many similarities to the dramas that you watch and the manhwas you read  
ZEN: -sweatdrop-  
MC: **YES YES YES**  
MC: **N-N-NOONAAAAA**  
MC: **PLEASE GIVE ME THAT SWEET SWEET VALIDATION**  
ZEN: omg  
ZEN: you jerk can’t you at least talk to him gently  
ZEN: don’t you see that he’s having a hard time  
MC: -weep-  
Jina Han: I don’t see the advantage of being gentle about it.  
Jina Han: seeing as he is already at the nadir of his mood.  
ZEN: you’re making it worse  
ZEN: anyway, MC  
ZEN: the jerk-lady and I survived the first test

_YOOKYUNG <3 has entered the chatroom._

_ZEN has sent an attachment: post-test-selfie-still-beautiful.jpg_

MC: -heart eyes-  
MC: yes. This is why I am alive.  
YOOKYUNG<3: -shocked-  
ZEN: you like my selfie that much? Hehe  
ZEN: I’ll allow it even tho ur a guy ^^  
MC: u can’t stop me anyways huehuehue  
MC: Jae-jin should be here.  
Jina Han: …  
Jina Han: when did you take this photo?  
ZEN: while you were getting me a beer.  
ZEN: see? That’s you in the background.  
MC: it’s like  
MC: you guys are married already  
YOOKYUNG<3: YOU LOOK LIKE HUSBAND AND WIFE  
YOOKYUNG<3: YOU GUISE R MOVIN TO FAST  
YOOKYUNG<3: slow down won’t ya  
YOOKYUNG<3: have mercy on an NBSB  
YOOKYUNG<3: -weep-  
MC: HAVE MERCY ON THE BROKEN-HEARTED  
MC: -weep-  
ZEN: ;;  
ZEN: you guys we’re just pretending, remember  
ZEN: we’re not rly engaged  
ZEN: calm down TT_TT  
Jina Han: what’s NBSB?  
MC: no boyfriend since birth  
YOOKYUNG<3: -weep-  
YOOKYUNG<3: don’t rub it in, oppa  
Jina Han: you are turning 21 soon, aren’t you Yookyung?  
YOOKYUNG<3: YA YA 21 YRS NO BOYFRIEND  
YOOKYUNG<3: COME ONE COME ALL TO SEE THE ULTIMATE NBSB  
ZEN: ;;  
MC: Yookyung calm down TT_TT  
MC: you’ll find him some day…  
YOOKYUNG<3: btw… you and seven had a fight?  
MC: eheh~  
MC: it’s not a fight if there’s no talking involved, isn’t it…  
MC: hahahahahahaha  
Jina Han: …  
ZEN: …  
YOOKYUNG<3: oppa TT_TT  
YOOKYUNG<3: I’m sure she’s just super busy from agency work  
YOOKYUNG<3: and she’s working super hard ‘cause of the hacker  
YOOKYUNG<3: okay?  
MC: yeah okay…  
YOOKYUNG<3: btw. Did u visit Jaejin in the office?  
MC: yeah.  
MC: he was tense the entire time, waiting to be called for back-up  
MC: when he wasn’t called at all  
MC: **… he relaxed so much he couldn’t get up**

_MC has sent an attachment: peaceful_jaejin_on_chair_still-life.jpg_

ZEN: -shocked-  
ZEN: see, you CEO-in-line  
ZEN: that’s what happens with overwork!!!  
Jina Han: he looks content.  
Jina Han: it has a good effect on him.  
ZEN: **NO IT DOESN’T**  
ZEN: look at him  
ZEN: he looks like he’s just waiting for the angels of heaven to take his soul to the other side  
Jina Han: don’t exaggerate  
Jina Han: besides, aren’t you Buddhist, Zen?  
Jina Han: why would you suddenly refer to the angels of heaven?  
ZEN: -fuming-  
ZEN: don’t change the subject!!!  
ZEN: you self-centered jerk!  
ZEN: jerk-lady!  
MC: no worries tho. I carried him home via piggyback  
YOOKYUNG <3: OMG  
YOOKYUNG<3: good thing you’re strong enough, oppa  
YOOKYUNG<3: aren’t u guys the same height  
MC: I’m taller by 2 cm  
MC: he wasn’t that heavy  
MC: but I had to carry him for three blocks ಥ_ಥ  
YOOKYUNG<3: poor Jae-jin TT_TT  
MC: he must be sleeping right now… he hasn’t slept well since Zen got hospitalized  
MC: seriously though Jina, I think he needs a break.  
ZEN: see?  
ZEN: if you keep making him work like that  
ZEN: he’ll get sick eventually  
ZEN: or quit  
Jina Han: Quitting is not compatible with Assistant Kang’s personality.  
Jina Han: What the two of us do in our professional lives is our business.  
Jina Han: I appreciate it greatly if you stop meddling.  
ZEN: meddling???!!!!!  
ZEN: **he’s our friend, you jerk**  
ZEN: you can make it better for him  
ZEN: but you won’t, just ‘cause youre a selfish brat who can’t work a vending machine by yourself!!!!  
YOOKYUNG <3: ooh shots fired  
Jina Han: I have no need for vending machines.  
Jina Han: knowledge of such things is a waste of my brain power.  
ZEN: this is why I can’t stand you!!!!  
ZEN: forget it. I need to cool down;;  
ZEN: MC, thanks for taking care of Jae-jin

_ZEN has left the chatroom._

MC: …  
YOOKYUNG<3: yikes.

_Jina Han has left the chatroom._

MC: … where is it  
MC: my happy story  
MC: -weep-  
YOOKYUNG<3: -puffs air-  
YOOKYUNG<3: they always fight like this, MC  
YOOKYUNG<3: nuthin’ to worry about  
MC: ya I guess  
MC: but Jina didn’t even say goodbye  
YOOKYUNG<3: anyways if you like  
YOOKYUNG<3: I’ll visit you in your ice cream shop!  
MC: thanks yookyung.  
MC: … let me know in advance before you go  
YOOKYUNG<3: okay… I know it gets super busy  
MC: haha I meant that I much prefer it if you were there when it’s busy  
MC: when there’s lots of people in the shop  
YOOKYUNG<3: -??-  
MC: hehe. So you see how awesome ur oppa is in speed-scooping (ง ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)ง  
YOOKYUNG<3: ummmmmmm ಠ_ಠ  
YOOKYUNG<3: weird but ok  
MC: U always have to be careful. ok Yookyung!??  
YOOKYUNG<3: uh yeah ok  
YOOKYUNG<3: did something happen oppa?  
MC: ya know. The hacker n stuff  
MC: I bet Seven’s working hard but  
MC: the guy’s still at large  
MC: anyways, Yookyung, I gotta go now  
MC: I have to answer a bunch of emails  
YOOKYUNG<3: right, right!  
YOOKYUNG<3: work hard oppa!  
MC: good night, yookyung!

 _YOOKYUNG <3 has left the chatroom. _  
_MC has left the chatroom._   

* * *

  
  
Jae-jin Kang woke up like a mummy who was summoned after two millennia of slumber.

To his surprise, he was already on his bed. His necktie was loosened, and his jacket hung neatly over the back of the small computer chair in his room.

The digital clock read 3:03 AM. He shook his head and tried to recall the events of the night before.

 _Oh. MC did_ that.

The Piggyback. The magical first step of skinship.

He blushed. Watching all those k-dramas and musicals, Jae-jin indulged in the occasional daydream of accidentally drinking too much and then being carried by a handsome guy with silver hair and red eyes and a charming smile and an angelic voice that can summon the Heavenly Host.

 _But it’s MC who carried me here._ He sighed as he bid _goodbye_ to his fantasies. _How embarrassing._ Reviewing the chat logs he missed, he felt doubly embarrassed seeing his photo as a dead man on an office chair.

 _What’s more, those two fought again. As expected._ He sighed, seeing the familiar argument blow up between his idol and his boss. _Just when I thought they were finally getting along._

The screen suddenly went black as a phone call came in. Jae-jin yelped, seeing the name of his boss on the screen. He cleared his throat and answered, ”Good morning, this is Assistant Kang.”

“Assistant Kang. Please take me to the hospital. I am ill.”

Jae-jin sat up from his bed in full alert. “What’s the matter, Ms. Han? How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?”

“No, nothing is physically painful. But I am having trouble sleeping.”

“All right. How about other symptoms?”

“Hm.” He heard the muffled sound of bare feet walking heavily on a carpeted floor. The bell on Elliot’s collar tinkled in the distance. “There’s also a heaviness in my chest and a discomfort in my throat. But when I examined my blood pressure, my heart rate, my body temperature, my complexion, and my throat, I did not see anything wrong.”

“Oh… I see.”

“And the symptoms are intermittent in occurrence. When I think of other things, I feel completely normal. Otherwise the symptoms start, and my sleep is disturbed.”

Jae-jin’s lower eyelid twitched. _Is this seriously about…_ “About that, Ms. Han. When you say ‘other things’… what do you mean?”

There was a silence on the other end of the phone. Jae-jin knew that the stoic woman stopped pacing. “Things other than that man.”

“… who?”

Another silence. Jae-jin knew the next name that was going to come before he even heard it.

He sighed. “Ms. Han, I’m sure that this isn’t due to a physical ailment. I think the cause of your symptoms is… psychological.”

“Psychological? Are you saying that I am mentally ill?”

“No, of course not.” _Even if you were, I’m not going to say it to your face._ “However, based on what I saw on the messenger app earlier, I believe that the cause of your symptoms is related to what transpired there. Specifically, your argument with Zen.”

The voice on the other end paused. “I do not follow, Assistant Kang.”

 _Oh, for the love of…_ “What I’m saying is… Ms. Han, I think you’re upset that you fought with Zen.”

“Upset.” Another long pause. “I do not know enough about feeling upset to confirm or refute your argument.”

Jae-jin sighed inwardly. _Maybe she really is a robot._

“But for the sake of argument, let’s say that your hypothesis is correct. What is the next appropriate course of action to take? Do I need to call for medical assistance?”

“No, I do not think so.” Jae-jin scratched the back of his head. “The best thing to do is probably to talk to Zen and resolve the issue. But surely that can wait til the morning—“

In the next moment, Ms. Han hung up, leaving him to converse with the busy tone. He sighed. Would it kill her to say something equivalent to goodbye for once?

Approximately twenty seconds later, much to his surprise, Ms. Han called him again. “Ms. Han? What’s wrong?”

“… say, Assistant Kang. I was told that you were unwell earlier. How are you doing now?”

“Um… I’m fine, Ms. Han. I think I will be able to recover in the morning.”

“All right. Let me know if you need to take a sick leave. Take care.” Busy tone again.

…

 _I’m… I’m in the right dimension, right?_ The bedridden assistant shook his head in awe. _She said, take care._

 _I need… I need coffee… I might be having withdrawal hallucinations… yes, that’s it…_ Jae-jin willed his tired body to cooperate with him as he trudged to his kitchenette to brew himself the strongest Ethiopian beans he had in his cupboard.

* * *

 

Zen was hopelessly lost.

Somewhere, somehow, he found himself in a forest in the middle of the night. He knew the air was cold—there was frost covering the leaves and the air from his mouth turned into fog. Apart from the rustling of the leaves as he trudged through the forest, no other sound was heard.

He had nothing on his body but the clothes on his back. There was nothing to guide him from the darkness but the stars in the sky and the light of the full moon. _Come on,_ he thought to himself. _Just find a light. A single person. A single living thing._

Out of nowhere, as if he were on a dark stage with a spotlight shining on the opposite end, a bright cluster of white and green lights manifested itself at the other end of the forest.

 _I’m saved. I’m saved._ The despair he felt faded, and he ran uphill towards the light.

He did not know how long or how far he ran. As he reached the peak, a new sense of foreboding awaited him as the source of the lights showed itself.

“A castle…”

The walls were painted bright white. An eye symbol, glowing with pale, mint-coloured light, was situated right in front. Bright flowers of different colours bloomed and glowed despite the harsh winter air.

“Meow…”

“Elizabeth?”

“Not Elizabeth. In this world, my name is Elliot 3rd.” The cat smiled at him. The voice was haughty and rich, just like his owner. “What are you doing here, Zen?”

“That’s what I’d like to know, you furball… wait… I’m not sneezing.”

The cat closed his eyes, the way cats do when they know something you don’t. “It’s because you’re in the wrong place, Zen. But we have no choice but to work with what we have.” He clawed his way up Zen’s leg and torso and situated himself at his shoulder. “Listen to me closely. If you haven’t figured it out yet, this is one of your special dreams.”

“Special dream?”

“The one you have when major things are about to happen.” The cat pawed him at the head. “Come on, all the Zens in the other multiverses have them too. Even the female ones and the gender-neutral ones and the unicorn ones.”

“… female? Gender… UNICORN?!”

“Yes. But this is hardly the time to discuss such trivialities.” The cat’s blue eyes were bright and full of knowledge and wisdom and age. They stared into Zen’s red clueless ones in an unsettling way. “You have three important things to do Zen. The first is to keep Jina Han safe, no matter what happens.”

“A—all right. I can do that much.” He didn’t like where this was going.

“Next is to make sure that you and Jihye Kim and Se-young Choi come to save me when the time comes. Not Jae-jin Kang. Especially not Yookyung Kim. And definitely not Min-Chul Lee. Got that?”

“How am I supposed to do that? I don’t even know where V is… And who are Se-young Choi and Min-Chul Lee?”

“I hope you figure it out. You are smart when you need to be.” The cat smiled in a Cheshire-like way. “The last one is the most important one, Zen. Please listen closely.”

Zen moved his ear closer to the cat’s mouth, which had one paw conspiratorially up the side of his face.

_Save the princess from the king_

Elliot 3rd gracefully extended his paw to the direction of the castle’s gate. A young woman, the princess, clad in magenta robes, was glaring at Zen. She had objects in both hands, which morphed into frightening objects by the second—a gun. Two guns. A bottle. Rope. A Molotov cocktail.

Fire. Fire. Fire.

“If you see this future, Zen, it will happen. Whatever you do, don’t open your eyes.”

Darkness enveloped his entire being right before the first explosion. He barely felt the heat of the flames, and barely heard the sound of fire razing through the flowers and wood and concrete. He felt a pair of hands on both shoulders, pulling him into a different place, away from the heat and cold and light and noise.

“Goodbye, Hyun Ryu~ Remember to take care of me and Jina Han~ or else I’ll poop in your shoes!”

* * *

 

 “Zen. Zen. Zen.”

Mid-snore, his eyes fluttered open. It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness.

“Finally, you are awake.”

He looked at the being looming over him at the side of his bed. A figure clothed in pure white. Long hair covering a pale face. Dark eyes, wide and blank, boring into his open eyes.

He screamed in pure terror and only stopped when the figure clamped his mouth shut.

“What are you doing? It is only me.”

As he struggled to calm down, he was finally able to register the annoying jerk that just broke into his room. Said jerk moved her hand away from his face as soon as he stopped screaming. “Jina Han?! What the HELL are you doing in my room??” He looked at the sky outside the window. As expected, it was still dark. ‘And in the middle of the night? Oh my god, what time is it…”

The woman let go of his shoulder and crossed her arms. Zen could see now that she was wearing a white night gown made of expensive flowing fabric. She was seated in the empty space next to his bed. “It is 0315 hours… make that 0316. Are you… nude?”

“No. God.” Zen sat up and threw off the duvet, revealing his sweat pants. “I like sleeping without a shirt on.”

“All right. You must be wondering why I am here.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” he muttered under his breath. “Make this quick, all right? I wanna go back to sleep…”

Jina Han turned her torso to face him fully and moved forward. She stared at him in silence for a few moments, in a rare moment of confusion, as if struggling to find the words to say.

“I,” she began, then paused in hesitation. “I need you now.”

_… Huh…?_

“I need you to make my body feel better.”

_What what what what WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT_

Zen was so flustered that he felt actual smoke coming out of his nostrils. He scooted away from her desperately. A million inappropriate thoughts raced through his mind. “WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, TRUST FUND??! DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF TALK??!” he yelled, trying to overcome the beastly urges to do things he refused to acknowledge.

“Why are you running away?” Unfortunately for Zen, Jina Han crawled on the bed closer and closer and closer to him until he was trapped next to a wall. In what sounded like a surge of superhuman strength, the woman cornered him by banging her hand against the wall.

_Oh my god what is happening what is happening…!!_

“Stop this Zen. I know you also feel the same way.”

“What-do-you-mean-exactly?!” _Don’t lose. Don’t lose. Don’t lose._

Jina Han’s face was _too damn close._ The rest of her body was _too DAMN CLOSE._ Zen was very aware of the feel of her arm against his shoulder and the curves of her body glowing under the moonlight. As she breathed and expanded her chest and moved closer, her breasts inched closer and closer to his chest.

 _YOU BETTER NOT LOOK DOWN THERE YOU BEAST._ Zen focused instead on her eyes, which was apparently still not done searching for the words to say.

“I know that… you are also… _upset_ about what happened in the chatroom earlier.”

Jina let her hand slide from the wall to her sides. As she moved her body away from his, Zen relaxed so much that he practically deflated and almost melted off the side of the wall. “Or do you not recall our argument this evening?”

“Uh… yeah… about Jae-jin. What about it?”

“After that conversation between us took place… I felt all sorts of physical discomfort.” At this point, the woman turned away, a finger to her chin once more. “Some restlessness, chest tightness… a feeling in my throat, as if something heavy and unpleasant was stuck there. And I couldn’t sleep. Did you feel something similar?”

“W-well… you really pissed me off. So… I dunno, a mild headache, maybe. I don’t really remember what I felt physically.”

“Odd. You were able to sleep, but you appeared quite restless just now. So I thought you had more or less the same symptoms as I did. Assistant Kang explained that I likely had a psychological disturbance occur to me due to the argument we had.”

“You… you woke up Jae-jin for this?”

Jina Han tilted her head. “He sounded awake. He claims to have recovered from his previous state, so we need not worry.”

Zen put a hand to his face. “You woke up a guy who collapsed from exhaustion to explain to you why you’re feeling upset. Of course you did, Trust Fund.” Does this woman have no sense of shame? She was looking back at him as if he weren’t berating her. “He’s your employee, so of course he’ll tell you he’s fine even if he’s still tired.”

“It’s not in Assistant Kang’s character to tell lies, so I do not understand what you are saying.” She crossed her arms over chest again and looked away. “Although… on the off-chance that he has overestimated his capabilities… I advised him to re-evaluate himself and take a sick leave if there is a need for it.”

Zen’s eyes widened in surprise. “You did? That’s… uncharacteristically nice of you.”

Jina stared at him in curiosity. One of her smooth hands moved to the center of her ample cleavage— _dammit beast stop looking there._  “Somehow… hearing you say that has improved some of my symptoms. My chest does not feel as heavy anymore… this is interesting.”

“Geez…” Zen sighed deeply and looked deep into his heart for his extra supply of understanding. Maybe it was like one of those sci-fi animes where the robot suddenly starts experiencing emotions and he doesn’t know what to do about them. “Um… all right. For now, let’s just kiss and make-up—“

“Kiss... and make up?”

“No no NO not literally!” Before the woman could make a move, Zen held her by the shoulders and distanced himself as far as he could.  “What I mean is, let’s just forget about the argument we had earlier, all right? If you’re letting Jae-jin rest, then I don’t have a reason to be upset with you anymore.”

“… all right. You are not upset anymore.”

“I’m not upset anymore.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt her muscles relax under his grip. Her eyes clouded over. “Hm. This worked too well for some reason… now I feel so tired that I could barely…”

Inexplicably, within the end of her sentence, Jina Han fell asleep on her feet.

“What the hell…” Zen stared at the whole phenomenon in wonder. Maybe she really was an alien from outer space? Was Jumin Han this much of an alien too? When Zen attempted to let go of her shoulders, she swayed precariously from side to side.

“Trust Fund, you…!!!” She wouldn’t wake up no matter how much Zen shook her. “Do I really have to carry you back?”

“Zzz.”

“Argh!” No way around it. He lifted her in his arms, princess-style, and fished out the key-card to her apartment from the pocket of her night gown. He thanked all the heavens that she was lighter than she appeared.

The trip to her apartment was nice and quiet. Her breathing was quiet and shallow, her face peaceful and smooth, like a sleeping doll. Holding his breath, he went inside her room, dropped her unceremoniously on her king-sized bed, quickly threw the covers over her body, and ran out before a sneeze escaped from his mouth.

The furball, Elliot 3rd, watched the scene with mild interest from the top of his cat condo. Their eyes met for a brief moment, and Zen could have _sworn_ he had a knowing look in his eyes.

As he exited the room, the cat hopped on the bed next to his owner and gave Zen another look, which sort of looked like he was saying, _Thanks. I’ll take it from here._

Zen ran out of the apartment and sneezed and sneezed and sneezed until he was out of breath. “That damn furball… what did he want me to do again…?”

Exhausted, he made his way back into his own unit and cursed the dissatisfied beast, which bugged him and kept him from sleeping until the sun was up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope to get a lot of the story done before I have to go to the mountains to study for one of the biggest exams ever in the history of exams lol hahahaha -dies-  
> some notes:  
> \- Jae-jin (male!Jaehee) is romantically interested in Zen here in a slightly different way than Jaehee likes Zen as a fan. He is also openly gay and everyone in the RFA is ok with it  
> \- he also talks about 'skinship' or physical intimacy and piggyback rides, which is a trope in many romantic k-dramas (at least in the ones ive seen ^^). an article about it: http://www.dramabeans.com/2010/07/pop-culture-piggyback-rides/  
> \- in my head Elliot 3rd talks like the Baron from The Cat Returns. pls watch it if u haven't it's one of my fav movies  
> \- since there's a unicorn MC there must be a unicorn AU where zen is a beautiful silver stallion who could fart rainbows or something idk  
> \- ya lady Jumin did the Kabedon~ i do love fanart of him doing that to Zen or MC teehee  
> thank u again for reading. sorry that the chats are so long but the details need to be there hahahahaa -dies-


	9. Makes Me Want To Steal Something

_Jae-jin Kang has entered the chatroom.  
MC has entered the chatroom.  
ZEN has entered the chatroom._

MC: Jaejin! You’re alive!!! ((((；゜Д゜)))  
Jae-jin Kang: Good morning, MC and Zen.   
ZEN: that’s a relief  
ZEN: u looked like u were dying back then;;  
Jae-jin Kang: I am very much alive  
Jae-jin Kang: and very grateful to you, MC, for taking me home  
MC: ‘twas nothing ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ  
MC: carrying u was a pretty good workout too lols  
Jae-jin Kang: ( 。•_• 。)  
Jae-jin Kang: I’m so embarrassed  
ZEN: nvm that  
ZEN: were u able to rest, Jae-jin?  
Jae-jin Kang: yes. I am back to work.  
Jae-jin Kang: no need to worry about me.  
Jae-jin Kang: by the way, Zen, how about you?  
Jae-jin Kang: were you able to sleep well last night?  
ZEN: ;;  
ZEN: ur boss woke me up in the middle of the night  
Jae-jin Kang: I thought so  
Jae-jin Kang: -sigh-  
MC: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
MC: in the middle of the night, huh  
ZEN: =_= nothing like that, MC  
ZEN: she had insomnia and she thought that somehow I could help her  
Jae-jin Kang: whatever you did seemed to help  
MC: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
ZEN: -annoyed-  
Jae-jin Kang: she looked as she always had this morning.

_Jina Han has entered the chatroom._

MC: Good morning, Jina~~~~  
MC: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) did u have a good sleep  
Jina Han: good morning everyone.  
Jina Han: yes, MC. Why do you ask?  
Jina Han: Assistant Kang, have you updated Zen?  
Jae-jin Kang: I am about to.   
Jae-jin Kang: Zen, this is about all the results of your tests   
ZEN: !!!!  
ZEN: did they find anything???   
Jae-jin Kang: I will send you a copy of the full medical report through your email.  
Jae-jin Kang: but when they did further testing of your blood, hair, and urine samples   
Jae-jin Kang: **they were able to find small traces of an alarming number of illicit drugs**  
ZEN: -eh??-  
MC: -gasp-  
Jae-jin Kang: there were traces of benzodiazepines and other hallucinogens  
Jae-jin Kang: which may explain why you had prolonged derealization  
ZEN: I didn’t take any of those on purpose!   
Jae-jin Kang: We believe you   
Jae-jin Kang: the doctors believe that the dose you took was singular.  
Jae-jin Kang: and there were no signs in the rest of your body of chronic use  
Jae-jin Kang: and given the circumstances   
Jae-jin Kang: all the experts believe that your ingestion was unintentional.   
MC: OMG   
MC: this is… really a lot to take in.   
MC: Zen was drugged?   
ZEN: …  
Jina Han: indeed.   
ZEN: but who would do that???   
MC: …  
Jina Han: we need to take more serious measures in investigating this.   
Jina Han: I have assigned 707 to obtain as much information as possible  
Jina Han: on the night that the incident happened  
ZEN: don’t we need the police for this?  
Jina Han: Because there is a chance that this is an attack on the RFA,  
Jina Han: I called V as soon as I read the report   
Jina Han: she told me not to contact any authorities immediately   
Jina Han: and to leave the investigations to Seven.   
MC: Isn’t that risky, noona?   
ZEN: yeah!   
ZEN: what if this happens to someone else?   
ZEN: what if the person who did this comes after you guys too???!!!!  
ZEN: what is V thinking?!  
Jina Han: I understand the apprehension   
Jina Han: but… I agree with V.   
Jina Han: If we report to the police that there are drugs in Zen’s system   
Jina Han: naturally, he will come under suspicion of illegal drug use   
Jina Han: and, not having enough evidence of the contrary  
Jina Han: he might go to jail   
MC: -weep-  
ZEN: that’s… messed up   
ZEN: they’ll investigate it and find out that I didn’t take em on purpose  
Jina Han: we have to be smart about this, Zen.   
Jina Han: presently, you are under public scrutiny   
Jina Han: whether or not the police or the RFA uncovers the truth   
Jina Han: your image will severely suffer if this gets out in public too early  
Jae-jin Kang: Ms. Han is right.   
Jae-jin Kang: we have access to many resources   
Jae-jin Kang: and I am confident that we will be able to do a lot of progress on our own   
Jae-jin Kang: before we get the authorities involved in this   
ZEN: …   
MC: …   
Jina Han: that said, Zen   
Jina Han: I am not allowing you to go out of the C &R premises.   
Jina Han: furthermore, you will be accompanied by body guards 24/7.  
ZEN: what???  
ZEN: I was going to go back to Hair Gel _…_  
ZEN: since I was feeling okay  
Jina Han: the person who did this to you is still at large.   
Jina Han: it will be irresponsible for you to go out gallivanting in a place where the person who did this to you could easily drug you again   
Jae-jin Kang: Zen…   
Jae-jin Kang: This is a lot to take in, isn’t it.   
Jae-jin Kang: But I agree with Ms. Han.   
Jae-jin Kang: We have to work hard to keep you and everyone else safe.   
ZEN: … all right.   
Jina Han: Everyone else will get bodyguards too.   
MC: Really?   
MC: … where will I put them?? ;;  
Jina Han: they will be in your surroundings   
Jina Han: they will barely intrude in your activities   
Jina Han: so no need to worry.   
MC: … all right   
MC: thank you, Jina and Jae-jin   
MC: everyone has to be careful.   
ZEN: right, right.

_Jina Han has left the chatroom._

Jae-jin Kang: Zen, MC…. And everyone else in the RFA.   
Jae-jin Kang: please be safe.

_Jae-jin Kang has left the chatroom._

MC: I… should get going too, Zen.   
MC: have to set up shop and everything.   
MC: Yookyung’s visiting me at work today too.   
ZEN: I want to visit you at work too TT_TT  
MC: TT_TT  
MC: when things are less crazy   
MC: I’ll make you a giant parfait  
MC: with your face on it!!!!   
MC: the most beautiful one I’ll ever make!  
MC: so don’t feel too bad, Zen!   
ZEN: …. Okay   
ZEN: I’m counting on it   
ZEN: -heart-  
MC: -heart eyes-  
MC: Renewed energy!!!!   
MC: time to power-scoop!   
ZEN: all right.

 _ZEN has left the chatroom.  
MC has left the chatroom. _  


* * *

 

Zen felt his entire body going numb as he re-read the chat log. He racked his brain for any possible enemies that he made. _Maybe back when I was in that motorcycle gang? Maybe somebody who wanted to play my roles before? Maybe a stalker?_

His head hurt. He was sure it was not only from a lack of sleep. _Why is this happening to me? God, if this is my punishment for being too beautiful, please just take it away and keep everyone else safe…_

As expected from the chatrooms, a few moments later, around five muscly men in dark suits appeared at his doorstep and introduced themselves as his bodyguards. They had dark sunglasses and earpieces and looked just like they did in the movies. They briefed him on the things that they have to do for him, including checking his food for poison before letting him take any of it.

“Since you guys are here, it’s safe for me to go out of C&R, right?”

The biggest of them shook his bald head. “You are only allowed as far as the shopping mall connected to the building, sir.”

“Aw c’mon. I just want some ice cream from this place five minutes away…”

“I can run to the place and get you ice cream before it melts, sir.”

“Er… I wanna meet my friend who runs the place…”

“I can run to the place and carry your friend before he melts, sir.”

_Ugh._

It was not an entirely pleasant thing to have five burly men follow him wherever he goes. They wouldn’t even sit down when he asked them to. Zen tried his best to ignore them and to head to the gym to work out his frustrations away.

The starry-eyed receptionist who greeted Zen before was there once more, this time with extra stars and hearts surrounding her person. “Oh my! Zen-oppa, you’re back! What a lucky day this is!”

Zen was thankful that the receptionist didn’t seem to mind the bodyguards behind him. He gave her one of his signature heart-fluttering smiles, which had the intended effect of her melting into a puddle. “Why is it a lucky day for you?”

“W-well, ‘cause you’re here during my shift, oppa~! You have such a look on you when you work out! It’s like I’m seeing the beautiful maintenance of your beauty before my eyes which in itself is a beautiful process~!”

“You are too kind,” said Zen, nodding because he knew how true it was. The compliments were already making him feel better about his situation.

“And also because it’s such a privilege to see two beautiful celebrities as early as now… Wow what a lucky lucky day~”

As the receptionist gushed on and on, Zen heard the sound of somebody clearing her throat. “Oh my~! What a lucky day this is~!”

Another girl, who was pretty and small and cute, hopped to where Zen was speaking with the fan-girl. “Zen-oppa! Who knew that you worked out in this gym too~!”

He smiled at the girl. _Another fan? But she’s speaking so familiarly…_ He tried to remember where he’s met the girl. She had chocolate brown hair, striking blue contact lenses over her eyes, and a great figure that she flaunted with her sports bra and small shorts. “Um, yeah, I actually just started working out here…”

“Echo Girl~!!” The receptionist squealed. “She’s so pretty up close…”

“I know. You are a noisy lil thing, aren’t you?” said Echo Girl. She turned her attention to the surprised Zen. “Anyways, Zen-oppa, I’m so thrilled to see you here! I’m such a big fan of yours! Ever since I first saw you performing in Cube, I’ve fallen head over heels in love with you~”

“Wow. You know about Cube?” Up to that point in time, Zen thought that only Jaehee was hardcore enough to know about his earliest works.

“Of course! I’m not like the other girls who only know you from _JalaPepper_ or your other popular musicals. No-one can call herself a true Zen fan unless she knows about _all_ of your work, right?” She gave a meaningful side-eye to the receptionist, who didn’t seem to register the thinly veiled insult. “You’re here to work out, right oppa?”

“Yeah… I was just going to do cardio and lifting…” began Zen. He trailed off when the younger girl clung onto his arm and pointedly _squeezed it_ between her ample breasts.

He felt decidedly uncomfortable.

“Come on then, _oppa,_ let’s work out together~ I was going to pole dance, which is why I’m wearing this embarrassing skimpy outfit, but now that I’ve seen you here I want to train with you instead~!”

“Oh, but I usually work out alone—“

“We can do more together, right? Or if you want, you can watch me pole dance instead. That will make me so happy too. Tee-hee~”

Zen laughed awkwardly and gave a _help me_ look to the bodyguards, who just shrugged in unison. Before he knew it, he was being dragged to the inside of the gym by his arm, where Echo Girl insisted that they do _everything_ side-by-side. Every time he tried to refuse, she would fill the air with her chattering, and at one point even started _singing_ as she ran on the treadmill next to him. She made enough noise to make the other gym-goers peer at them in curiosity and whisper among themselves.

Later on she pleaded with him to hold her feet down and/or lift her legs as she did crunches. She made a lot of awkward noises as she did, which made Zen want to look away.

 _Help me,_ he mentally said, looking at his bodyguards. They just did that unison shrug again. _You guys are worthless…!!!_

“O… oppa, that was such a good workout~ you really tired me out~” Her face was red from all the exertion. She sat on the ground and looked up at him cutely. “But you’re barely tired! You must be so strong! Did I hold you back from your usual routine?”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” said Zen. “You really got into it though. Hey, can you stand…?”

“Yes, of course I… _aah~!”_ As she tried to stand up, she somehow fell forward and into Zen. She would have crashed, but he was able to catch her on time. As she clung onto his shirt for dear life, she looked up at him, teary-eyed. “I… I think I pulled a muscle or something, _oppa…_ my leg hurts~!”

“Right… I was worried that you didn’t warm up properly.” Zen sighed. He lent her his shoulder to help her walk to a nearby bench. She seemed to be so afraid to lose her balance that she threw her arms around his neck as they trudged. “Sit there and try to recover. I’ll have someone help you get home so you can rest, okay?”

She tugged on his shirt lightly and gave her best puppy-eyed look. “Can’t you help me instead, _oppa_?”

He shook his head. _My bodyguards would kill me if I left this place._ “I’m sure your manager knows how to take care of you better than I can.”

“B—but _oppa…_ I… I love you!” Before he could dodge, she had once again thrown her arms around him. “I wanna be with _oppa_ for as long as I can~!”

“Haha, sorry, that’s…” he began, struggling to gently pry her arms off him. _Wow her grip is strong._

“It’s cos of that _ajumma,_ isn’t it?” Echo Girl pouted. “Zen-oppa, do you really love her? I mean, she’s _so much_ older than you, and she looks mean, like a shark, doesn’t she?”

He sweatdropped. “N-now, don’t call my fiancée names, Echo Girl. Her family owns this place, ya know?”

She narrowed her eyes, a sneaky smile forming on her face. “You didn’t answer my question, oppa~ you’re hesitating, aren’t ya~?” she teased.

 _Annoying…!!_ Thought Zen. Giving his best, suave smile, he answered, “You caught me by surprise _,_ it’s such a personal question… but of course I love her.”

The smile didn’t move from her mouth—in fact, she got cockier by the minute. “So I have a chance with _oppa…?_ Oh, don’t look at me like that. I’m just _insanely_ jealous of her… she has everything, and she even managed to get _you_ on top of everything else! Isn’t that unfair? It just makes me wanna _steal_ something of hers, just to see if she’ll notice…”

 _Am I meeting an actual crazy fan?_ Zen pushed the thought away. “Stealing is bad, Echo Girl. If you take me away, she’ll be very sad. And I wouldn’t feel great about it too.” Or something to that effect. Who knows how that alien would present her emotions in the event that it _did_ happen.

Echo Girl pouted cutely again. “O… okay… Even if you say so, I won’t give up on you, _oppa._ Anyway, you guys aren’t married… _yet._ ” She winked and gave him a brilliant smile.

Moments later, Echo Girl’s manager came to fetch her, bowing to Zen in apology and gratitude a number of times before they left. He ran to the shower and gave in to his impulse to scrub all of her scent away, got dressed, and ambled weakly to the bright-eyed receptionist.

“Zen- _oppa,_ I didn’t know you two knew each other,” she said brightly.

“W… we don’t,” sighed Zen. “It surprised me as much as you that she knows about my musicals too.”

“She’s so cute, isn’t she?” gushed the receptionist. “You also kind of looked good together when you were working out…” When Zen glanced up at her tiredly, she changed her tune. “Th-that’s not to say that you and the Director don’t look better, because you _do!_ You and Director Han just look perfect together! “

They said their goodbyes after, and Zen and the burly men made their way up to his apartment again for a long day of doing nothing.

* * *

 

“Yookyung. Yookyung. Yookyung Kim. Oi, blondie, wake up.”

Yookyung snapped out of her reverie and almost gagged when she saw the very round, glasses-wearing face of her _sunbae_ looming over her face. “Kya~! _Sunbaenim!_ What’s going on?”

The girl smacked her over the head. “Just call me Juni, for crying out loud. And I should be asking you the same question. You’ve been spacing out for the past five minutes.”

The blonde girl rubbed the spot where she was hit and puffed her cheeks. She had, once again, been thinking about Ryung. While she has spent less time making theories as to how he could have killed himself and how it could have been V’s fault and if there was anything she could have done to stop it, there are those moments where she couldn’t stop the sorrowful thoughts. Like, what could Ryung have been thinking? What did his face look like as he jumped off the cliff to his death?

Why was Yookyung too stupid to not notice that something was terribly wrong? She felt hot tears stinging the corners of her eyes once more.

“It’s nothing… I’m just feeling overwhelmed for some reason…”

The girl called Juni puffed her cheeks as well. “Well… who wouldn’t be overwhelmed if they weren’t suddenly FLANKED BY FIVE BUFF BODYGUARDS OUT OF NOWHERE, HUH????”

The bodyguards in question loomed ominously behind the seat where Yookyung sat, making her other classmates uncomfortable. Seemingly unaffected, Yookyung just sighed. “These guys? Don’t mind them.”

And she truly didn’t mind them. Whatever was happening to Zen was pretty scary, true, but what if Jina and Jae-jin and Seven just stopped working so hard and just gave in? Was it so bad to stop being so strong all the time? It was so exhausting to just keep on fighting everyday…

“Who would _not_ mind them? I mean look at them! If a guy so much as makes a move on you, they’ll probably pounce and kill him on the spot! Isn’t that right?”

“Maybe so,” answered the biggest bodyguard.

“I knew it. Yookyung Kim, you’re gonna be an NBSB forever…”

“Ugh! Who even cares anymore!” Irritated, Yookyung began throwing her barely-used notebooks and textbooks in her bag. “Nothing in this stupid life matters anymore, anyway. I’ll see you online later, _sunbae._ ” That’s right. LOLOL will take all those terrible thoughts about Ryung away from her mind. As she stood up to leave, Juni’s chubby arm blocked her path.

“Oh no you don’t, silly _hoobae._ I came _all this way here_ just so you could introduce me to him!”

“Him? Who are you talking about?”

“ _Aish!_ Ice Cream _Oppa,_ of course! You promised that you’d take me there today!!!!”

Somehow, MC became insanely popular among the girls in SKY University as ‘Ice Cream _Oppa_ ,’ the kind-hearted cute guy who makes delicious parfaits and sundaes. He was so popular that his creations, as well as sneaky snapshots of the handsome _oppa_ as he worked, were all over Yookyung’s social media. Much to her chagrin, she accidentally let slip to her _sunbae_ during a LOLOL raid that she knew MC personally, and now she wouldn’t rest until she introduced both of them.

 _I also promised MC that I’d come today… ugh,_ she thought to herself. “I guess I _have_ to, don’t I?”

“What’s with that tone…” grumbled Juni. “Anyway, since you’re so miserable, I’ll treat you to any ice cream you like. Just cheer up already.”

“Forget about ice cream. Just buy me the new Rose Gold Armour Boost for my paladin and we’re even.”

“Fine.” The ice cream shop was one bus ride away from the university. Yookyung was so forlorn that the presence of the bodyguards made the trip less awkward.

One way or another, the two of them made it to the ice cream shop. As expected, a huge group of girls were already inside and practically _drooling_ over MC, who was working tirelessly behind the counter.

As soon as MC saw Yookyung, he had a bright smile on his face. He waved and yelled loudly, “YOOKYUNGIE~! Over here!!!”

She flinched as she felt the glare of about fifteen jealous girls on her. She trudged her way over to him, with her suddenly shy _sunbae_ and apathetic burly bodyguards trailing behind her. “Hey MC… sorry for bothering you when it’s so busy.”

“Nah, it’s good. I did tell you to come here when it’s busy, right? So my fave Supergirl can cheer for her _oppa_ while he works hard!” He gave her such a bright smile that he practically lit up like a level 5 fire spell. The jealous mutterings in the background increased in intensity.

 _Am I gonna make it out of here alive? Please_ oppa _we’re not in the chatroom!_ Yookyung thought in a panic while sweating profusely. “B-by the way, _oppa._ I wanna introduce you to my _sunbae…”_

“Hm? Where is she?”

Yookyung looked at the seat where her _sunbae_ supposedly sat, but she was gone. Inexplicably, she had retreated bashfully to the darkest corner of the shop. She gave Yookyung a thumbs-up, with a look that said, _you got this girl. Farewell to the life of an NBSB~_

 _What…? You got this all wrong, you…_ Yookyung stopped her mind-rant when a parfait appeared under her nose. She looked up curiously at MC, who just smiled.

“This one is on the house, Supergirl Yookyung. Thanks for visiting me.”

“Y… yeah, no problem.” She fought the blush that was threatening to spill over her cheeks. The parfait that was in front of her was made with layers of vanilla and strawberry flavoured ice cream, beautiful cuts of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and acai berries, and was topped beautifully with whipped cream, strawberry and raspberry syrup. Pink and red wafers completed the look.

“Wow, this is really pretty, _oppa_!” She took a photo and took a spoonful of the ice cream, which was sweet and tasty.

“Like it? I made it just for you. I call it the Menstruation Special.”

Yookyung spurt out the ice cream in MC’s direction, making the entire shop drop their jaws in shock. “Why the heck would you give it such a gross name?! You’ve been hanging around Seven too much!!!”

MC laughed and nonchalantly wiped the ice cream off his face. “I’m sorry, Yookyung. You’ve just been so dark and grumpy, and you haven’t opened the messenger in a while,” he said in a low voice, making sure that nobody else heard the last part of the sentence. “I know that sweets will make any PMS better, so you better finish that entire parfait.”

Yookyung nodded and did her best effort to smile back. “MC, you’re just nice to everyone, aren’t you? You like taking care of everyone, even a nobody like me… You’re just like…”

“Hm?” MC suddenly had a look of worry on his face. He handed Yookyung a tissue. “Hey, now, don’t cry…”

 _Cry?_ She didn’t even feel the tears flowing down her face. She gratefully took the tissue from MC’s grasp. “S—sorry. I keep… I keep remembering Ryung… If he were here, then maybe all this bad stuff wouldn’t happen to us, you know? And if he saw what happened to Jina and Zen, I bet he’d be so happy…”

When Ryung was around, everybody was happy. When they weren’t happy, Ryung would be there with his bright smile and his bright countenance to make them happy. Yookyung understood why V called him ‘her sun’ while he was alive. Now that the sun is gone, there’s nothing but darkness, except…

MC, again with his bright smile like a million light bulbs, appeared in her line of vision. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through, Yookyung. I know how much you loved him. But don’t worry. We’re here for you.”

“You… you’re really just like him… like Ryung. Aren’t you, _oppa?”_

MC scratched the back of his head. “I… I didn’t know Ryung, so I don’t know… but I’m sure that I’m not _exactly_ like him, you know? Everyone is different.”

“Of course… of course, you’re right.” Yookyung sniffled one last time and concentrated on eating her parfait. MC went back to his place behind the cashier briefly to take a few more orders.

As she munched through the delicious parfait silently, her thoughts inevitably drifted back to Ryung. _I promised him I’d work hard for Sally,_ she thought sadly. _And here I am, wasting my life away… just letting V sweep him and his memories under the rug…_

“You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you.”

“Uwah~!” Yookyung almost dropped the ice cream that was already in her mouth. Without her noticing, a small girl was already seated beside her at the counter. Her green eyes were so intense, they seem to be burning holes right through her.

The bodyguards seemed to also be shocked that they didn’t notice the girl’s presence immediately, and they moved in on her quickly. MC stopped them. “Guys, it’s fine!” He waved both arms frantically until they moved away from the mystery girl. “It’s you again! Welcome back!”

Yookyung, still not over her surprise, looked at MC questioningly. “You know her, MC?”

The silent girl didn’t move her curious gaze from Yookyung. MC scratched the back of his head. “Well… sort of. She’s a frequent customer. Before I met you guys, she came in here everyday to eat ice cream. Isn’t that right, _agassi?_ Although… I haven’t seen you in a while, come to think of it… _”_

She had all of her hair tucked under a cap, which shadowed her features gloomily. Yookyung had a hard time taking note of her features, except for the strange, green eyes and her pale complexion. “I needed to work hard,” was all she said.

MC made her a blue-and-green creation made of mint-flavoured ice cream, chocolate chips, and a blue popsicle stuck at the side. “Here’s your usual. Wow, you were gone for a long time! I see you finally had a break, huh?”

The girl shook her head. “I need to keep working hard.”

“I see… well, don’t work too hard… and don’t skip your meals. You look like you lost weight.”

Yookyung narrowed her eyes. A tinge of pink made it to the girl’s face. “Th… thank you for your concern, MC.”

“And thank you for being one of my best customers! Oh, excuse me for a moment.” MC turned his back to attend to other customers, leaving the two girls alone.

To Yookyung’s surprise, the girl suddenly shifted her piercing gaze once more to the college girl. Her voice was barely audible when she spoke. “Yookyung Kim. Everything will be all right. Don’t worry. You’ll see him soon.”

Yookyung stared at her dumbly. Before she could think of anything to say, the girl stood up and left, letting the blue popsicle melt and drip all over the counter.

* * *

_YOOKYUNG <3 has entered the chatroom.   
Unknown has entered the chatroom. _

YOOKYUNG<3: ???   
YOOKYUNG<3: what’s wrong with the chatroom?   
YOOKYUNG<3: Seven? Is that u? why is ur name weird   
Unknown: hey, Yookyung   
YOOKYUNG<3: why’d u change the background?   
YOOKYUNG<3: anyways, nvm that  
YOOKYUNG<3: I need… I need to talk to u, seven   
Unknown: what about?  
YOOKYUNG<3: … it’s kinda complicated   
YOOKYUNG<3: can I just call on the phone?  
Unknown: sorry, it’s safer on chat   
Unknown: I’m working on updates  
Unknown: so for now u don’t have to worry about other people seeing this. ^^  
YOOKYUNG<3: um… okay   
YOOKYUNG<3: I was just thinking  
YOOKYUNG<3: about… Ryung-oppa and,   
YOOKYUNG<3: I’m embarrassed to talk about this to other members, but   
YOOKYUNG<3: seven… **what if oppa is alive  
** YOOKYUNG<3: **what if… V has been lying to us all this time?  
** Unknown: …   
Unknown: why do you say this so suddenly, Yookyung?   
YOOKYUNG<3: I’ve been saying all along   
YOOKYUNG<3: that there’s no body   
YOOKYUNG<3: no reason why he’ll kill himself  
YOOKYUNG<3: no proof of anything that V says   
YOOKYUNG<3: it’s been 6 months and there’s no trace of him anywhere…   
Unknown: … I see   
Unknown: that is reasonable  
YOOKYUNG<3: right?   
YOOKYUNG<3: it’s weird that you’re agreeing with me so easily today  
YOOKYUNG<3: good-weird   
Unknown: ^^   
Unknown: you know, yookyung   
Unknown: you’re one of my faves in the RFA   
YOOKYUNG<3: … what really? Hehe   
YOOKYUNG<3: I mean is it cos we play LOLOL together all the time?  
YOOKYUNG<3: I thought MC was ur favourite   
Unknown: yeah, him too.   
Unknown: but you’re my most favourite   
Unknown: because you’re much… smarter than everyone else   
Unknown: you’re the only one   
Unknown: who doesn’t believe in V   
YOOKYUNG<3: …   
YOOKYUNG<3: is this… really seven?  
Unknown: because you’re my favourite, Yookyung   
Unknown: I’m going to tell you something special   
Unknown: what if I tell you  
YOOKYUNG<3: wait WHO IS THIS   
Unknown: that what you believe in   
Unknown: was not entirely… impossible?   
YOOKYUNG<3: … you mean   
YOOKYUNG<3: Ryung…?   
Unknown: ^^   
Unknown: listen, Yookyung   
Unknown: if you truly want to know…   
Unknown: I’d like to see you tomorrow. Again. :)  
Unknown: MC-oppa is my fave too, so   
Unknown: we’ll have to see him too. ^^  
Unknown: if you’re not interested, that’s okay   
Unknown: **… but you may never see them again  
** YOOKYUNG<3: this… this is a joke, right?   
YOOKYUNG<3: hey, prove it   
Unknown: all in due time.   
Unknown: Yookyung… my favourite <3  
Unknown: I’ll have to leave you now.   
Unknown: if you think badly of me, you can tell V and Seven anytime. I won’t be mad.   
Unknown: but I will be very sad.   
Unknown: well then.

_Unknown has left the chatroom._

YOOKYUNG<3: ….!!!! Where did it go??!

_707 has entered the chatroom_

707: heya Yookyungie~!!!   
707: -smooch-  
707: … hey, you’ve been here talking to yourself?  
YOOKYUNG<3: …   
YOOKYUNG<3: what do you mean, seven?   
707: I coulda sworn there was another person here in the chatroom?   
707: was it just my imagination?   
YOOKYUNG<3: um,,,   
YOOKYUNG<3: it was just me   
YOOKYUNG<3: I just got here too   
707: (๑ˊ▵ॢˋ̥๑)  
707: okies~   
707: anyways, yookyungie~~~~   
707: u were with MC today, huh?   
YOOKYUNG<3:  ya   
YOOKYUNG<3: I was finally able to visit   
707: right, right   
707: there was a girl there right?   
YOOKYUNG<3: ???? it was all girls there, seven =_=  
YOOKYUNG<3: all of them drooling over oppa   
YOOKYUNG<3: wait… could u be… jealous??!   
707: **OF COURSE I’M JEALOUS  
** 707: … altho if it’s a hot guy I won’t be as jealous tee hee   
707: but I was talking bout that girl u were talking to…   
707: not the fat one   
YOOKYUNG<3: oh… how’d u know that   
707: you ask that of me? The Goddess of Voyeurism?!!   
YOOKYUNG<3: -sweatdrop-   
YOOKYUNG<3: MC says she’s a regular customer from way before  
707: ohhhhhh   
YOOKYUNG<3: she looks like she rly likes ice cream   
707: I see   
707: what did u guys talk about   
YOOKYUNG<3: um…   
YOOKYUNG<3: she was   
YOOKYUNG<3: **really really giddy over seeing MC  
** 707: -gasp-  
YOOKYUNG<3: I think she has a crush on him   
707: **MC U FIEND  
** YOOKYUNG<3: not to worry tho   
YOOKYUNG<3: MC didn’t seem the least bit interested in her ^^   
707: -relief-  
707: -heart eyes-  
707: well… if u say so yookyung   
707: we always gotta be careful   
YOOKYUNG<3: yeah… haha  
YOOKYUNG<3: listen, seven   
707: ???   
YOOKYUNG<3: um   
YOOKYUNG<3: LOLOL time   
YOOKYUNG<3: LOLOL~ LOLOL~   
707: -sweatdrop-  
707: u go ahead supergirl :p  
707: I’ll be with u once I die from all this work   
707: **hahahahahahahahahahahahaha  
** YOOKYUNG<3: ok \llj  
YOOKYUNG<3: dseee u

_YOOKYUNG <3 has left the chatroom. _

707: …

_707 has left the chatroom._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so,,, not a lot of zen/jina in this chapter... but just u wait muahahaha~ ^^   
> a note on drugs: if u have to take benzodiazepines pls pls pls don't do so irresponsibly~! and don't mix 'em with alcohol. and in general don't do illegal drugs ;;  
> i apologize for the shameless self-insert lol. i think that if i'd be friends with just one of the RFA it'd definitely be Yoosung cos of the shut-in tendencies and the emo-ness... on second thought we prolly won't be good to each other lol


	10. Why Is It Only You

_707 has entered the chatroom.  
MC has entered the chatroom. _

707: hero~~!!!  
MC: my goddess~~~!!!!!  
707: (●♡∀♡)  
MC: (♥ω♥*)  
MC: I missed you~! I feel like I haven’t seen u in a while  
707: yeah…  
707: sry bout that hehe  
707: I haven’t slept  
707: **in 72 hours  
** MC: (;´Д`)  
MC: how can that be?  
707: **hahahahahaha  
** 707: **anything is possible  
** 707: **with the S E V E N S T A R drink**  
MC: you need to rest seveny~  
707: I can’t

_Jae-jin Kang has entered the chatroom._

Jae-jin Kang: Lucille. I came in as soon as I saw that you were here  
707: .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.  
MC: !!!!  
MC: my goddess is having a breakdown  
Jae-jin Kang: … oh my  
707: nah, I’m fine  
707: **hahahahaha  
** 707: i… have a lot of homework that I owe u huh jaejin  
707: u and jumin… hahahaha  
Jae-jin Kang: … why are you calling Ms. Han Jumin?  
707: … she looks like a Jumin doesn’t she  
707: hahahahaha  
707: I’ve had so much SEVENSTAR  
707: that I think my body is transcending dimensions too  
707: **HHAHAHAHAHAHAHA  
** MC: oh my god  
Jae-jin Kang: … Lucille, if it’s too much  
Jae-jin Kang: Ms. Han’s offer of the intelligence unit still stands  
707: … nah  
707: based on what I found… we don’t want any outsiders meddling… hahaha  
Jae-jin Kang: !!!  
Jae-jin Kang: what did you find out, Lucille?  
707: I sent it to u and jumin’s emails  
707: but… I need to summarize it here so everyone else knows  
707: that is… in summary  
707: **we’re all screwed  
** 707: **we’re all gunna die**

_707 has sent an attachment: dove_in_the_sky.jpg_

MC: ｡ﾟ(*´□`)ﾟ｡  
Jae-jin Kang: ;;  
Jae-jin Kang: please speak in clearer terms, Lucille  
707: haha ya.  
707: so… based on the medical report u sent to me  
707: zen seemed to have a buncha drugs in his system  
707: that an ordinary person cannot access  
707: and he was given a really illegal, expensive cocktail of it  
MC: cocktail?  
707: yeah… a proportioned mixture of it sold in a bottle  
707: I can’t be sure but based on the report  
707: **the drugs in zen’s system matched the drugs in a cocktail called ‘Elixir’  
** 707: in the dark webs, they call it the Cultist Cocktail  
707: ‘cause anyone who takes it  
707: become more docile and obedient and malleable and perfect for cult work  
707: … with varied results…  
Jae-jin Kang: oh my.  
Jae-jin Kang: but that didn’t happen to Zen  
707: yeah… he lucky that he just went in a different dimension lol  
707: some people just  
707: **dropped dead after taking one full dose for the first time  
** 707: **or go into a deep coma without waking up ever again  
** MC: -OMG-  
Jae-jin Kang: that is frightening  
707: what’s more…  
707: **“Elixir” is only created and sold exclusively  
** 707: **to an elite group of people**  
707: I’m talking about the incredibly rich and powerful  
707: the untouchable tier of people  
MC: you’re kidding  
MC: how could Zen be the target of those people  
Jae-jin Kang: that is true  
Jae-jin Kang: the only involvement with the rich that comes to mind is his recently publicised engagement to Ms. Han  
Jae-jin Kang: which happened after he was victimized  
707: ya… that helped narrow it down somewhat.  
707: I reviewed all of Zen’s files  
707: and the only involvement he has with that subset of people  
707: **is during RFA-hosted events  
** Jae-jin Kang: so you’re saying…  
707: yep.  
707: **THIS IS MOST LIKELY AN ATTACK ON THE RFA  
** 707: **SOMEONE POWERFUL WANTS TO BRAINWASH RFA**  
Jae-jin Kang: -shocked-  
Jae-jin Kang: but… why?  
707: -shrug-  
MC: Seven, do you think the hacker did this?  
707: maybe  
Jae-jin Kang: any news about the identity of the hacker?  
Jae-jin Kang: or the girl in the photo?  
707: w-ell  
707: no  
707: -OTL-  
Jae-jin Kang: ;;  
707: sry jaejin lol  
707: the photo’s not optimal… much of her hair covered her face  
707: its tough analysing an image like that  
Jae-jin Kang: all right..  
707: so we definitely have to look into all of the guests we’ve ever invited in the past parties  
707: Ill try to call V  
Jae-jin Kang: all right.  
Jae-jin Kang: you’ve done a great job  
707: thanks Jaehee ^^  
Jae-jin Kang: …  
Jae-jin Kang: no.  
707: hahahaha  
707: oh btw I also sent u n jumin the other thing u asked for  
Jae-jin Kang: about Glam Choi and Spencer  
Jae-jin Kang: -sigh-  
Jae-jin Kang: suddenly they both seem irrelevant…  
707: hahaha true  
707: ya know… about that dude spencer  
MC: spudson  
707: ya  
Jae-jin Kang: ;;  
707: it’s weird…  
707: there’s zero data on him up until a few months ago  
707: it’s like he was created and recently released from a lab somewhere to cause havoc  
707: lololololol  
Jae-jin Kang: … interesting.  
707: also I’ll post these here

 _707 sent 3 attachments:_  
who_is_spencer.pdf  
zen_echogirl_scandal.pdf  
ryu_family_trouble.pdf

Jae-jin Kang: !!!!!!!!  
MC: wait wait wait wait  
MC: **WHO DARES PUT TO QUESTION MY OTP**  
MC: (  >д<)  
707: I hacked into a bunch of tabloids to get these  
707: looks like they all came from one mystery source  
707: … linked to somebody working for glam choi  
Jae-jin Kang: … I see  
Jae-jin Kang: I must leave. Ms. Han needs to know about all of these updates immediately.

_Jae-jin Kang has left the chatroom._

MC: all of this is pretty overwhelming TT_TT  
707: yeah Σ(ＴωＴ)  
707: my… my brain hurts  
MC: Seveny  
MC: u have to take a break  
MC: ur working too hard :(  
707: it’s fine…  
707: the hacker is working as hard as I am  
707: he’s super good… I barely catch up to what he’s doing  
MC: still  
707: he should work for the agency  
707: wait, no. the agency and everyone in it are demons  
MC: ;;  
MC: if you need me  
707: MC.  
707: the best thing for you is to keep yourself safe.  
707: you don’t deserve any of this to happen to you  
707: if you weren’t tricked by that guy you would have been safe from all of this  
MC: don’t say that seveny  
707: I’m rly sry.  
MC: …  
707: I need to go.  
707: stay put ok  
707: stay safe.

_707 has left the chatroom._

MC: …  
MC: … see you, Seveny.

_MC has left the chatroom._

* * *

 

Zen woke up to three troubling phone calls in succession.

The first of them was from that unbearable rich kid. “Hyun Ryu,” she began, her voice oddly even and unsteady at the same time.

“Why are you calling me by that name?”

“Because that is your name. Have you seen the chatrooms yet?”

“No, you woke me up.”

Jina Han breathed in deeply at the other end of the line. “You need to read everything. Given the contents of everything that Seven has sent us, I am disallowing you from leaving your unit.”

“What are you talking about? And you’re caging me here?”

“Yes. I will speak to you about these matters in private once all my board meetings are over. This is not a suggestion.” She hung up the next moment, leaving Zen a few seconds of ranting about that insufferable trust fund kid who thinks she could order him around like that. However, upon reviewing the chat logs, he felt all his motivation to leave melt away.

What were all these terms that Seven used? Drugs? Rich and powerful? Dangerous? Scandal? What the hell has he gotten himself into? To top it all off, the so-called ‘scandal’ with Echo Girl pissed him off—the photos in the article showed the two of them in the gym the day before, with ‘compromising’ photos of Echo Girl throwing herself at him and practically shoving her breasts into his face.

The article about Spencer was full of the same sensationalist crap, with ‘inside sources’ claiming that Jina Han and Spencer were seen at the office together, putting into question the authenticity of her engagement with Zen.

“What is this bull?!” growled Zen. Seeing the asshole’s mug shot next to Jina’s face made him feel unfamiliar feelings of anger that he couldn’t define.

Zen hesitated to open the last article called ‘Ryu Family Trouble’, but just as he found the courage to open it, his phone rang again. The number was unregistered. “Hello?” he answered apprehensively.

“Hyun. It’s me.” A voice he knew very well answered him back.

“ _Hyung…_ is this really you?”

The familiarity of his older brother’s voice unexpectedly brought some comfort into his heart. “Yes. Listen, Hyun. I’ve been seeing news about you all over the internet for the past few days. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know what’s going on anymore, _hyung,_ but I swear, that thing with the popstar isn’t real!”

“You mean how you’re practically harassing that poor girl? Come on, Hyun, there are pictures. Honestly, what shameful things are you doing there?!”

“But _hyung,_ listen. _..”_

“No, listen to me.” A cutting sharpness was now evident on his older brother’s voice. “To be honest, I could care less about your love life. I don’t care if it’s that older woman you’re dating for money or that young girl you’re groping for attention. You could be as cheap and as scandalous as you want—“

“ _Hyung,_ I’m telling you, it’s not like that!”

“—but kindly leave the rest of the family out of it,” his brother continued. He took another deep breath as if to steady himself. “You… you have disappointed our parents enough already by choosing to sing and dance onstage like a monkey. But to imply that they are the reason why you’re like this today… I will not allow any further besmirching of our family name.”

“I have never said anything of that sort to the media!”

“It doesn’t matter. From this day forward, you are not in our family anymore. Goodbye, Hyun.” His older brother hung up without another word.

He felt all the air leave his lungs. He thought that his family has hurt him enough, but now…

As he tried to regain his bearings and to keep the tears from stinging his eyes any further, his phone rang for a third time. It was another unknown number. Against his better judgment, he answered the call, making up his mind that he’ll hang-up if it’s related to the media. “Hello?”

“Hello, _oppa~_! It’s me!”

“… who is this?”

“It’s Echo Girl, silly~! But I’ll let you call me Kyungju.”

 _Shit,_ he muttered under his breath. When Kyungju asked him to repeat what he said because she didn’t hear it, he shook his head. “Right. What do you want? And how'd you get my number?”

“Oh, is this a bad time _oppa_? Don’t tell me. You’ve seen the articles already, didn’t you?”

Zen felt his lower eyelid twitch. Maybe her voice didn’t translate well on the phone, but it was so high pitched and irritating and it gave him a headache. “Yeah… I can’t believe what those rags wrote about us. I’m… really sorry that you’re involved in this,” he said.

“N—no, actually, I felt like I need to apologize to _oppa_ too~ I can’t believe that those paparazzi would just intrude on us like that and make really weird conclusions.” Echo Girl giggled cutely. “Oh, if only they were true. You know, to be honest _oppa,_ seeing this scandal about us didn’t make me feel too bad.”

“…”

“That’s not to say that I’ll start spreading false rumours about us.” Zen felt that she was smiling that cocky, scheming smile as she said this. “Don’t worry. Kyungju will make sure to make it up to _oppa._ You know my father is the person behind Latte Entertainment?”

Zen made an affirmative sound. Latte Entertainment was one of the biggest production companies in Korea, and it is a well-known fact that Echo Girl’s rise to fame was given a boost due to that.

The bubbly girl on the other line giggled again. “Well, daddy told me that he’s gonna make a new TV show and that there’s gonna be auditions soon… it’ll be a period romance drama and I think Zen- _oppa_ will be so perfect for that role…! Of course, I’ll be in the lead right next to you. It’s going to be so much fun! What do you think?”

Zen sighed as silently as he could. “Echo Girl…”

“Kyungju!”

“Right. Kyungju. I’m sorry, but… to be honest, I’m not sure if I can commit to the auditions. Especially if they’re happening soon.”

A beat of silence. “Why not?” Her voice was sweet, but a definite dangerous tone was present.

“I have a lot of personal reasons. But don’t let that stop you from auditioning, okay? I’ll be rooting for you.” He used his best _oppa_ voice for the last line for added effect, but it didn’t seem to faze Kyungju.

“No, _oppa._ I won’t take that role unless you’re my leading man!” He knew she was pouting at that point. “If… if you don’t come with me… I don’t know what will happen to you!”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

He heard her breathe a little harder. In the next moment, her usual sweet tone returned. “I’m sorry, _oppa._ I’m not trying to threaten you, but… you know how vicious the media can be, yes? If I feel _very very lonely,_ who knows what I’ll tell them if they ask me about you.”

“You wouldn’t do anything like that…”

“Who knows.” She was smiling again. “Please please _pretty please_ think about the role, _oppa~?_ I’d like to hear your answer within the week.”

Echo Girl hung up in the next moment, leaving Zen with a throbbing headache.

He fell on his cushions with a _flop._ He didn’t want to look through the messenger app or the Triptr app to see what kind of a two-timing pervert the media thought he was. He didn’t feel like eating or moving or even _breathing._ He didn’t feel like looking at himself or brushing his hair or remind himself how beautiful he was. There was only one thing that he wanted to do at that point.  

“I need a smoke.”

* * *

 

Jina Han felt _unwell._ Although that was likely an understatement.

Throughout the very important, very pivotal, _very very boring_ board meetings that she had to endure at one of C&R’s affiliate corporations at the other side of the city, she felt an uncomfortable heaviness over her shoulder and a tightening headache around her forehead. Her jaw felt sore from clenching. She felt an irresistible urge to drum her fingers impatiently against the table, which she barely kept at bay, as another old fart discussed ways to expand the business in their international offices.

And it was all after Assistant Kang advised her to log on to her messenger and see the updates on Zen’s situation.

 _As if the hacker wasn’t enough…_ Truth be told, even though news of possible cultists attacking the RFA was worrisome, it was the other ‘news’ that exponentially increased the feelings of irritation within the usually stoic businesswoman. So much so that as soon as the meeting adjourned, she stood up so quickly that the old men at the board glanced at her questioningly.

As she rushed out of the conference room, Assistant Kang trailed behind her with all the minutes of the meeting. He was prattling on and on about the meeting and it was worsening her headache. She stopped abruptly, making him stop awkwardly mid-stride.

“Ms. Han?”

“Assistant Kang. I believe I am ill.”

Assistant Kang listened patiently as she enumerated her symptoms one by one. At the end of it, he merely nodded. “Ms. Han… I do not think this is a mere physical ailment.”

“Do you mean to say that I am _upset_ once more?”

The chief assistant shook his head. “I believe the feelings are more complex, Ms. Han. And believe me, I understand…  I, too, am conflicted about what I am truly feeling about the situation.”

“What is your best guess about what I’m feeling?”

With understanding in his brown eyes, Assistant Kang answered, “Perhaps you feel… anxious. And threatened. Because of all the new threats to the safety of the RFA, and you and Zen.”

Jina conceded that it was true. “We must not be doing enough to address these threats, Assistant Kang. It must be why I am feeling so restless.”

 “Seven continues to do her work. However, I believe she is at her limit. Despite this, she has refused the aid of the intelligence unit.”

“… we’ll have to discuss this with V.” The restlessness within her didn’t decrease, and she said so to Assistant Kang. “Would speaking with Zen decrease these anxious feelings?”

“… I am not sure… but I am sure that it would help Zen. I am sure that he is feeling overwhelmed. I’m sure that he could use a friend at this time.”

“I see. I’ve never considered Zen as my friend,” answered Jina bluntly. “At best, he is an acquaintance with whom I have frequent disagreements and arguments and a valued colleague.”

Assistant Kang sweatdropped.  “Even so, he _is_ your fiancé, Ms. Han.”

She glanced at the diamond ring on her finger as he said this. Again, Jina conceded (with some comfort, to her surprise) that it was true.

It was only when Driver Kim picked them up to bring them back to the main C&R offices that Jina realized it was already early evening. A pool of paparazzi were waiting for her in front of the building. It was a good thing that Driver Kim was able to skillfully drive around the building inconspicuously to drop them off at a different entrance.

Assistant Kang excused himself to finish more paperwork at his office, leaving Jina to come up to her penthouse alone. She went straight to Zen’s unit and opened the door without knocking.

To her surprise, Zen was at the center of the living room, with about ten open cans of beer in front of him. The bodyguards had one can each in their hands. The acrid smell of cigarettes wafted to her nose, bringing her attention to a half-full ashtray at the balcony.

“Ms. Han.” In panic, the guards stood up and simultaneously bowed.

When Jina didn’t speak immediately, the red-faced Zen waved his arms around. “H-hey Trust Fund, don’t be mad at them. You told me that they need to taste everything I eat or drink, right?”

“I see.” She turned to the guards and simply said, “Leave us.” They left without another word.

The couple stood in silence in the living room, with Jina staring into Zen’s reddening face. When she remained silent, the actor raised his eyebrows and took another sip of his beer. “So… are you mad at me or something? You know, if it’s about those gossip articles, you can just ask me directly.”

The corners of her mouth twisted downward almost involuntarily. “I try not to let it concern me. We have bigger issues to address,” she said evenly.

Zen walked closer to her and examined her face. “Hmm… but even though you try to ignore it, it still pisses you off, huh?”

“Believe me, Zen. In a different setting, it is impossible for me to be concerned about the type of men or women that you choose to court or bed. However, must I remind you that you are my fiancé, and that you are in danger? I thought you had more common sense than to associate yourself with that… that little pop idol friend of yours.”

To her surprise, Zen started laughing at her. It did nothing to lighten the load of the unnamed negative feelings inside her.

“Men or women…? Is it just me, or do you sound really jealous right now, Trust Fund? Well, could be that you aren’t used to people trying to take what’s yours.” He raised his beer at her and gave her an unsteady grin. “Anyways, before you came in here, my world turned upside down. The RFA is under attack, my family disowned me, the media’s having a field day over the demise of our so-called engagement, and that little pop idol, as you said, is threatening to blow up those false rumours further.”

“False rumours.”

“Yeah... I know you’ll have a hard time believing me, like everyone else, but she… forced herself on me, and somebody took pictures. I didn’t want to touch her like that.” Zen took another miserable swig of beer and swirled it around his mouth, as if to absorb all the alcohol possible before swallowing. “So… yeah. Apparently I’m a gold digger _and_ a molester now. And according to all of them, you,” he pointed at her with his can of beer, “deserve better than me.”

Jina crossed her arms. “… Seven mentioned that all of this was likely orchestrated by Glam Choi,” she stated factually.

Zen shrugged. “Whoever. Whatever. All I know is that I’m getting wasted tonight, and you won’t stop me.” He raised the can to his mouth again, but Jina stopped him. He made a sound of protest which was instantly muted when the woman took the can from his hand and tossed it in a nearby bin.

“Hey brat—I just told you that you won’t stop me,” he grumbled.

“I won’t,” said Jina, putting her face closer to his. It had the expected effect of him turning redder and more incoherent. “But you won’t do it with beer. You will drink wine. And you will get inebriated with me.”

His familiar black turtleneck, which outlined his frame and the well-defined muscles underneath, smelled of cigarettes. She’d just have to try and tolerate the smell.

Before he could protest any further, she dragged him by the collar out of his unit and into her apartment, where around ten bottles of vintage red were waiting to be consumed.

* * *

 

Zen found himself once more in the CEO-in-line’s penthouse suite. The cat was safely stowed away in her bedroom, and with no servants there that night, they had the place all to themselves.

 _She wasn’t kidding about getting inebriated._ Zen didn’t even know what the pretentious word meant, but as he watched Jina Han finish four and a half bottles of wine mostly by herself in such a short time, he was sure that she wanted to be as wasted as he did.

“You aren’t drinking,” she said. Her voice was not slurred yet, but her cheeks were already flushed red.

“I’m not a wine drinker. And you should really slow down,” he retorted. Shit. He was already getting tipsy before the trust fund kid went in. Now that there was a mixture of beer and wine in his system, he was already feeling light-headed and less guarded.

“You have not tried enough of it. This wine,” she said, presenting the fifth bottle proudly, “is good. And expensive. And I have invested in them. And it is good. Therefore you must drink it.”

She poured him another glass and with some unsteadiness, used both of her hands to hand it to him. This led to her almost falling over, and Zen steadying her. Luckily, the wine didn’t spill, and it only ended up in them in an almost-embrace.

Zen sighed. A girl falling over him wasn’t so much of a problem before, but now it was. “What am I going to do with you…” He took the glass from her, placed it on the table, and stumbled back down on the couch.

“What are you doing? Shouldn’t you be talking about your troubles?”

He shook his head. “Not yet… I need a smoke,” he said as he rummaged through his pockets for his pack of Lucky Strokes and his lighter.

Jina frowned at him. “I usually do not allow smoking of any kind here.”

“Too bad. Let me kill my lungs in peace.”

“If you really must, I will come with you to try it.”

Since when was Jina Han such a needy little kid? She trailed behind him as he ambled to the balcony with his mildly uncoordinated limbs. When he fished out a cigarette, she took it from his fingers and stuck it in her mouth.

“I did say that I will try this filthy habit of yours, didn’t I?” she said when he protested. “Now light it.”

“Do you even know how to smoke?” grumbled Zen, but he lit the end of it, anyway. The trust fund kid confidently took a deep drag of the tobacco. In the next moment, she was coughing so violently that Zen worried that her lung will come out. She was almost blue in the face when she calmed down, and all of the smoke had gone out of her nostrils and her mouth.

“That was terrible.”

“You’re terrible at this.” Despite himself, Zen started laughing genuinely, probably for the first time after a long time. He took the cigarette from her fingers and put it in his mouth. “That’s why you leave these shitty habits to us poor people. Don’t try it again.”

He inhaled from the cancer stick deeply. The menthol tickled his throat pleasantly, and he felt a little more relaxed as he exhaled puffs of silver smoke into the open air. He stared at the stars briefly as he did—they were bright and pretty that night.

Jina was staring at him in curiosity. “What is it?”

She tilted her head and put a finger to her chin. “They call that an indirect kiss, don’t they?”

She was pointing to the cigarette, and true enough, some vestiges of her lipstick stained the filter. Zen felt his cheeks getting warmer. “Y—yeah, so what? Only kids get flustered by things like that,” he said.

“You’re turning pink.”

“You’re staring at me! Stop that!”

Jina smirked. And then moved closer. Her hand slowly reached out to touch his face.

He mindlessly dropped the cigarette to the floor.

She moved closer.

When her mouth reached his, Zen felt the world go silent. There was nothing but the taste of the wine in her mouth and the cigarettes and beer in his; the scent of lavender and some other exquisite thing that he’ll never name, the perfume on her skin and her hair; the possessive, almost _selfish_ way she gripped the sides of his face as she deepened the kiss. Electricity seemed to spark from her fingertips as her skin made contact with his skin. He shut his eyes and let the little shocks of pleasure take over.

Before he knew it, his back was against the railing, and he was out of breath. Jina lowered her hands to his chest. One of her fingers traced a line down his torso.

“You’re flustered,” she stated factually.

“S-shut up,” he breathed out unconvincingly. His heart was beating so fast, he thought it would burst inside his chest. Worst of all, she had her hand pressed up against his chest, and that knowing smile she was giving him told him that yes, she knew that only she had that effect on him. “What was that about, anyway…”

“I’m going to prove all of them wrong,” she said, twirling a lock of his silver hair in her fingers. “You belong to me and nobody else.”

He didn’t have time to say anything to that.She moved her face closer to his again and before he knew it, she was kissing him deeply and roughly. Who knew that it was possible for her to be more possessive than she already was? Her tongue tasted him candidly and commandingly, and all he could do was surrender to it.

 _Why is it you? Why is it only you?_ Nobody else made him feel this way. Not Echo Girl, not any of the girls or boys he’d had to kiss before for any of his roles. And she knows it.

 Mustering what little strength he had left, he pushed her an arm’s length away and tried to catch his breath.

“What’s the matter?” she asked. Her lips were swollen, her face flushed, her silky hair in slight disarray, her eyes heavily lidded. _Shit._

“It’s cold. We’ll freeze to death if we stay here.” Indeed, the chill of the February night air was beginning to sting his skin.

Jina nodded. She was definitely not as sober as she looked. When she tried to turn around to go back, she stumbled. Zen had to lift her in his arms to keep her safe from breaking her face, just like he did when she fell asleep on her feet.

“… you’re very strong,” giggled Jina. (A sentence he never thought he’d had to construct in his narrative).

He brought her back to the living room and placed her carefully on the couch, only to stumble and clumsily crash into her as he did. When their bodies made contact again, the usually-stoic woman took the opportunity to grasp him by his hair and to kiss him all over. Inexplicably, she was able to flip them over so that she straddled his hips.

The infrequent sighs that she made drove him crazy. She mumbled drunkenly about how beautiful he was and how it was unfair—those red eyes, the silver hair, his perfectly symmetrical face—as she planted one kiss after another on his mouth, his jawline, the base of his neck, his collarbone.

And drunkenly he mumbled back that no, it was _her_ that was beautiful, and how that was the true injustice of it. Her hair like silk, her eyes like night, her skin like porcelain. He was waxing poetic and he knew it was terrible and cheesy but she seemed to be enjoying it, seemed to be enjoying him _worshipping_ her for once instead of arguing with her, and she seemed to not get enough of it.

Somehow she had pulled of his shirt, and she had worked her way out of hers. It was a sight to behold—creamy, smooth skin, without a single scar or discolouration. She had on a lacy pink bra and while all he wanted to do was to take it off and do what The Beast tells him to, he gained enough sobriety and willpower to move his hands from that tiny waist to her shoulders to hold her back.

“What’s wrong, Zen?”

“You’re beautiful,” he breathed for the umpteenth time that night. He struggled not to get lost in the galaxies inside her eyes. “But I don’t want to do this to you while we’re both drunk.”

Not while he was drunk and weak and worthless. Not while he believes deep down in his heart that the trust fund kid deserved better than him.

Not when she might regret all of this in the morning. The mere possibility of it stung him in the chest.

She blinked at him silently. “You are my fiancé, aren’t you? It should be all right to do this.”

He sighed and shook his head. He gestured for her to come closer, and with obvious reluctance she curled up beside him. He stroked her hair gently and closed his eyes. “When we’re better. When everything and everyone is safe,” he said.

Jina didn’t say anything. She moved her face very close to his. Her scent filled his nostrils and made him feel heady and calm at the same time. A warmth, which was different from the uncontrollable one taking over both of them earlier, cocooned around them comfortably.

Mere minutes later, he felt her quiet, regular breathing, and her hand holding on to his in the same possessive way. He felt the cold metal of the faux engagement ring on her finger, an odd comfort filling him inside.

He succumbed later on to a peaceful sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooo. i had to rewrite this damn chapter from scratch because i somehow deleted and then saved everything when i fell asleep lololol. somehow the story changed a bit--originally only zenny is a drunken mess but i like drunk jumin a lot so i made jina drunk too hehe.  
> notes:  
> \- 'Latte Entertainment' is a parody of Lotte Entertainment  
> \- seven refers to the 'dark webs' or 'darknets' which is a true and scary place that aren't accessible by normal means. i imagine that's how mint eye gets their supply of elixir  
> \- if u pit zen and jumin in a drinking contest who would win? i wrote a different fic about it lols  
> \- o the temptation to write smut is strong but alas it is not yet the proper time... orz i need to practice writing that sort of stuff anyways lol pls let me know if it was too awkward or too vague, that will help me in honing my technique  
> thx for reading ^^ i hope to maintain my every-other-day updating schedule but that may not be possible with the upcoming things i have to do so! i will just have to do my best. -crosses fingers-


	11. I'll Do Anything You Want

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning -- mentions of domestic abuse.

_Private Messages between user 707 and user V_

707: Unnie  
707: are you there?  
707: are you safe?  
707: listen…  
707: i want you to be honest with me  
707: I know I’m not allowed to ask, but…  
V: hello, Lucille.  
V: I am sorry. I have not been answering your calls lately  
V: what did you want to know?  
707: unnie!  
707: you’re here…  
707: I’m… I’m desperate  
707: I need to know  
707: if… if she’s safe  
V: …  
V: Lucille…  
707: please?  
707: I know I shouldn’t doubt you but  
707: the girl in Zen’s photo  
707: really looks like her  
707: I’ve been lying to everybody else  
707: that it’s impossible to tell  
707: but… please tell me I’m wrong, V  
V: I’m  
V: working very hard to keep her safe  
707: so she isn’t safe?  
707: V, where is she?  
707: where did she go after Ryung died?  
707: is it really her?  
707: why would she do that to Zen?  
707: V… what’s going on?  
707: Unnie?  
V: I’m… really sorry, Lucille.  
V: I cannot let you go to where she is.  
V: not now.  
V: not while it’s dangerous for everyone  
707: why is the RFA under attack anyway?!  
707: why the secrets?  
707: V, I want to trust you  
707: please let me in

_V is offline._

_-_-_-_-_

The next morning, Zen had a major headache. When he turned his head to one side, the world spun with him. When he tried to open his eyes, a million bright lights burned his eyes and gave him pain and suffering.

The bar of sun through the window was too damn bright. The sounds were just too damn loud—the chirping of the birds outside, the mewling of the cat through the door, the quiet breathing of the half-naked woman beside him…

He blinked and sat up slowly. Jina Han, who was dressed only in the shirt he wore the night before and her underwear, continued sleeping half-nakedly beside him.

He was so flustered that he fell off the couch with a yelp and a thud. This caused the dark-haired woman to moan and mumble something in irritation before turning to the other side to sleep again.

“Shit… none of that was a dream,” he concluded. He held his head as the world spun again. _Did we...?_

“If you’re wondering whether you took my virginity and ravaged me mercilessly and passionately last night, Zen… I can’t say that I recall very well,” she grumbled under a throw pillow.

 _... Virginity? Are you serious?_ “No we didn’t. I’m pretty sure we didn't do stuff that we'd regret,” he said as he stood up unsteadily. By that time, all of the things that they did the night before came crashing to his bleary memory full-force. Looking at his beautiful fiancée’s hungover, irritable form, he knew that he made the right decision.

 _As to how I restrained myself is another mystery,_ he thought as he caught himself staring at her creamy, exposed legs. She sat up abruptly, and he turned away almost simultaneously, his face reddening.

“You were staring at me,” she stated factually.

“Put your damn pants back on.” He looked away from her adamantly, even when he felt that she was hovering behind him. “And the damn furball’s been making a racket. You better go see him.”

“… all right. But before that.” Swiftly, she turned him around by the shoulders and kissed him suddenly and deeply.

Sweet. She still tasted sweet, even though she was supposed to taste like hungover morning breath. His hands somehow found the curve of her hip and settled there comfortably. She broke the kiss eventually after a period of time that both felt too long and not long enough, and stared into his eyes.

There was no hint of regret or remorse in her eyes. Dumbfounded, he opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

“A reminder of who you belong to,” she said simply. Without looking back, she stood up and steadily made her way to her room.

He felt a vein pop in his forehead. _What the—belong to?! I don’t belong to you!_ He wanted to scream. His swirling thoughts got interrupted by the ring of the doorbell.

“… well, I’m supposedly living here anyways. No harm in answering the door,” he mumbled to himself as he trudged his way to the front door. He was greeted unexpectedly by a familiar tall woman with mint-coloured hair, pale unfocused eyes, and a kind smile.

“… Oh. You’re here. Good morning Zen.” She looked over his shoulder. “… and Jina and Elliot. Am I… interrupting you guys?”

* * *

“… again, I am sorry for coming at such an awkward time.” Maybe she should have called first before coming up here? She was one of the few (apart from Chairman Han, Jae-jin Kang, and a few trusted servants) who was authorized by fingerprint and facial recognition to access Jina Han's penthouse suite. While she looked slightly embarrassed about the whole situation, the 1,000 megawatt smile that Jihye Kim was trying to suppress said otherwise.

The moment that the mint-haired visitor acknowledged the presence of Elliot 3rd, Zen sneezed excessively to the point of almost blacking out, or so he claimed. The silver-haired actor rushed out to the balcony and yelled out slurred, congested profanities into the cityscape.

Presently, V’s closest friend sat calmly in front of her, with the Persian cat contentedly purring in her lap. “V, you didn’t tell me that you were back from Busan. How was your trip?”

“It wasn’t very eventful. I’m not sure if I was able to take any worthwhile photographs… and here I was hoping to have some new shots auctioned for the party.”

“I see. I hope that your eyesight isn’t getting worse.”

“Not at all… it’s just the right one that’s bothering me. It’ll get better in time.” At least, that’s what she hoped. The cataract in her right eye was about as solid as a rock, and dark spots already appeared in the periphery of her left eye’s field of vision.

Fortunately, it was nice and bright inside Jina’s unit. It wasn’t too difficult for V to see important details, such as the way that Zen’s face was starting to swell, and the fact that Jina seemed to be wearing a sweater that was obviously not hers.

The dark-haired woman frowned. “I am suggesting to you once more to see an ophthalmologist, V… no matter how skilful or famous you are as a photographer, you must take care of your eyesight.”

“I will. Soon. Don’t worry about me.” She gave her what she hoped was a convincing smile. Before Jina could retort, Elliot 3rd hopped off from her lap and meowed demandingly at V for attention. She gently stroked the cat’s snow white fur, amazed at how loudly he purred. “Jina… I actually came here for something selfish. I hope that you would indulge me.”

 

> _She calls out to him over and over until her voice becomes weak and her throat becomes sore and her tears are all run dry._ My sun, you are my sun, please believe me, you are all light and no shadow and I’ll never love anybody else as much as I love you.
> 
> _He doesn’t believe her._

Jina’s expression barely changed. After years and years of being her closest friend, V knew the subtleties of each imperceptible twitch and tension of the fine muscles in her face. At that particular moment, she knew that the dark-haired woman was concerned. And a little afraid to ask the next question. “V… you aren’t leaving us, are you?”

In the background, Zen stopped sneezing and held his breath to listen to their conversation. Even Elliot 3rd looked up at her in sheer curiosity.

“Leaving…?” V marvelled at the softness and brightness of Elliot’s fur coat. Not a hint of darkness anywhere. “It’s just that there are just some things that I have to do. And I can’t do them here. And that it will take me a lot of time—“

“Do you mind telling me about ‘these things’?” Jina asked.

 

> _He believes her less and less as the weeks wear on. Under her care, she watches helplessly as he takes less and less of his medications and spends less and less time in therapy. So why is she surprised—why isn’t it her fault that he doesn’t believe her? Not anymore, not ever?_
> 
> _He doesn’t believe her, even when she says those with all of her heart and all of her soul and whatever little else was left inside her until there was nothing left._

“I’m sorry.” When will she ever get sick of saying that phrase? When will they stop believing her too?

Jina sighed deeply. She was used to this. And yet her voice when she spoke was strong and resolute and faithful and without a trace of pity. It was a kindness that Jihye didn’t deserve.  “All right. What do you need me to do?”

“I want you to be the _de facto_ leader of the RFA while I am gone,” she replied.

 “I see. What does that entail?”

“The most important thing right now is to host the party. I know it’s difficult, since we have all these new troubles with the hacker, and Zen, and the two of you, but… we cannot postpone it any further. Even if I have not returned, even if… untoward things should happen to me, we have to continue the party.”

“Hm.” Jina crossed her arms and stared at her thoughtfully. “You won’t tell me the reason why it is so important, I presume.”

“… I’m sorry, Jina. It’s just… what Ryung would have wanted.” In reflex, she reached out to hold the right side of her face.

 

> _“What else do you want? What else can I give you?” she asks him as she puts one of her cold hands up to the part of her face that was beginning to swell. She tries to keep all the tears in, tries to keep all the tremours at bay. She sees nothing out of her wretched eye anymore, but it is only an eye, anyway…_
> 
> _Her voice is weak, but is gentle and is non-accusatory. She looks up at him—his green eyes are devoid of love for her and there is nothing there but darkness, darkness, darkness. His face is distorted beyond what she can hope to understand._
> 
> _A grim smile graces his handsome face. “A party. I want… a party.”_

“All right,” replied Jina, apparently not noticing the way she grimaced. “When should we hold the party? I know that MC has been inviting guests despite the fact that we have no actual date announced yet.”

That _is_ the question, isn’t it? Predicting his moves and guessing what he wanted was the most difficult part of this game. Breaking through his inner circle of believers was getting more and more difficult by the day, and that girl called Rei was becoming more and more aggressive with her moves. If they do not schedule this soon, then…

 _Courage, V._ She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I shall announce this in the messenger too, but… We need to hold the party five days from now.”

“What?!” Zen sneezed/shouted from the balcony, apparently in protest. “That’s—a-chew!—insane! That’s _—ACHOO—_ not enough time!!!!”

 “… it is as Zen sneezed out,” Jina said flatly. “Even if we put up all our best efforts, we cannot hope to match the magnitude of the two parties that the organization held before. And I am not confident that our guests would agree to come on such short notice.”

V shook her head. “We agreed to hold a smaller party. And it may be strange to say so, but I think that MC has enough charisma to guarantee a sizeable attendance despite the situation.” She briefly imagined the cool, cheerful face of MC—a charming face, one that was impossible to say ‘no’ to.

Again, Jina sighed—she seemed to do that a lot when she spoke with V. “If it is your decision, V, then we will comply. We will need to strategize about the programme, the promotions—“

Elliot’s ears perked up. His pink little nose wiggled, as if picking up a strange scent in the air. “Meow…”

“—and the security, which will have to be Assistant Kang’s assignment. As to the aesthetics and decorations, Yookyung will—“

“Meooowwwwwrrrr—”

“—work with Seven, and…” Jina trailed off. “Elliot 3rd? What is the matter?”

Slowly, and then rapidly, all of Elliot 3rd’s pure, snow-white fur stood on its ends. His ears folded to the sides, and from his position on V’s lap, she could see that his pupils were dilated. “Elliot? Are you all right, sir?” the mint-haired woman asked.

He leapt over her shoulder and bounded for the door. Inexplicably, he started scratching this repeatedly while mewling restlessly. Even when Jina scolded him gently and attempted to pick him up in her arms, he leapt off and continued scratching at the door.

“Elliot 3rd, what is wrong with you? This is very unlike you…” said Jina. “Do you want to go out of your room, my prince? There’s nobody there but our bodyguards.”

“MeeeOOOOOWWWRRRR!”

“… he is a stubborn one, isn’t he?” said V uneasily.

“He’s never acted like this before…” Jina thought. “Perhaps I should let him walk outside my unit. There’s nowhere else for him to go anyway.”

Jina turned the doorknob. From that point on, V would remember this moment in slow motion.

Curiously, Zen stopped sneezing, his eyes wide with what looked like sobering realization dawning upon him. He yelled _“nooooo,”_ and dramatically reached out to stop the two women, but of course he was too far away from the doorway.

Elliot 3rd bolted straight out the open door. The bodyguards who stood in attention idly all jolted in surprise.

There was nobody suspicious there, nobody calling out to him, yet Elliot seemed like a cat possessed, searching for a voice that only he could hear.

He headed straight to the completely open and completely empty elevator. The moment he entered it, it slammed shut without warning and went straight down.

“Trust Fund! Elly—I mean, your furball is in danger! _A-CHEW!_ ” yelled Zen.

Jina didn’t need to be told twice. “Guards!” she barked. Immediately, the bodyguards sprang into action, yelling codes into their wristwatch walkie-talkies and bolting down the stairs.

It was a ruckus everywhere in the building after that incident—for some reason, the camera in the elevator did not register any images up to the point where the cat hopped in it. The carriage went down straight to the lobby, but as the security team waited for the agitated cat to alight, when it opened, it was completely empty.

The security cameras in the penthouse did not pick up any suspicious activity. The last person seen to enter the floor was Jihye Kim.

“… what’s going on… V, what’s going on…”

Jina appeared as stoic and as strong as ever, but when V reached out to hold her hand, it was cold and trembling. When the mint-haired woman guided her to her sofa in an attempt to console her, the dark-haired woman uncharacteristically allowed this gesture.

Later on, Jae-jin went up to the penthouse to report everything to her, but was only greeted by his boss’s rare outburst of anger. Zen struggled to hold his breath and to console Jina too, but he appeared to be just as shocked and defeated as she was.

 _… Ryung… please, I’ll do anything you want,_ thought V in silence and shame. _Just stop hurting us. And stop hurting her._

Feeling as helpless as ever, Jihye could only hold on to Jina’s cold hand and say a silent prayer.

* * *

 

“YOO-KYUUUUUNG KIIIIIIM~~!!!!!!”

Barely had she muttered her standard _yeoboseyo_ when the shrill sound of Seven yelling out her name interrupted her and went straight to her unfortunate right eardrum. The college girl held her phone about five inches away from her head. “Calm down, Seven! What the heck?!”

“I miiiiss yooouuuu. Heehee~” Seven giggled. “What ya up to? You’re up uncharacteristically early!!! I thought that your first class was after lunch~?”

 “Hm? How did you know?” asked Yookyung. “Wait. Don’t tell me you’re stalking me??”

It was 8 in the morning, and Yookyung was secretly riding the number 5 bus with her bodyguards to secretly go to MC’s ice cream shop to secretly wait for Unknown or whatever to tell her more secrets. That is, if this whole Unknown thing wasn’t actually a prank from Seven, but…

“Okay, I won’t tell you. But I will tell you that you have to be careful on that bus you’re currently riding on. There’s a well-endowed uncle there with a chocolate-brown mullet and a leopard-print V-neck who’s staring at your apparent lack of a thigh gap.”

 “H-huh?!” Flustered, Yookyung looked around the bus. Apart from her small army of bodyguards, she was only able to appreciate a group of elementary school students, a snoring grandma, and a beautiful foreign woman with a chocolate-brown mullet and a leopard-print V-neck, who was obviously minding her own business. “What the heck, there’s no-one like that here, Seven. Are you playing a prank on me again?”

She could almost imagine the red-head with her trademark shit-eating grin, falling over her seat from LOL-ing too hard. “Oh, Yookyung, as easy and tempting as it is to prank your ass off, that is not my goal today~! As the in-house super magical girl of the RFA, I, seven-zero-seven, have a responsibility to keep the rest of the members safe and sound and functional!!!”

“Ugh. Whatever, dude,” grumbled Yookyung.

She guffawed a few seconds more before asking, “Seriously though, Yookyung, I just wanted to check on you, you know? You aren’t in the messenger so much now, and the last time we talked, you were kinda acting weird.”

Yookyung flinched. She couldn’t tell Seven about Unknown now, could she? If she did, then bad stuff might happen to everybody else… and worse, she’d never know what _really_ happened to Ryung. “Oh, th-that. Um… you know, MC gave me a parfait a coupla days ago, and it tasted good but afterwards I had like super bad diarrhea and, and I tried playing LOLOL to distract me from it but I couldn’t take my PC to the toilet so it was generally a bad night.”

She was so nervous that she said it loud enough for the rest of the bus to hear. She instantly turned as red as a tomato as soon as the words left her mouth and tried in desperation to ignore everybody else.

“Yikes, that’s terrible! You must stink, Yookyung!”

“Y-you know it. I mean—I don’t stink anymore, geez! But th-that’s why I’m going back to MC’s shop. So I could tell him off. Maybe he doesn’t wash his hands or something.”

On the other end of the line, Seven hummed for a long time. “That’s right, Yookyung, you better tell him off, okay~! Hero can be such a bubblehead sometimes, hehe… sometimes I feel like he’s an AI that malfunctions when I have my back turned lol.”

“Dude, if any of us is an AI, it’s definitely you,” deadpanned Yookyung, to which Seven only lol-ed.

“Maybe so! If I were an AI, I’d be the best AI there is. Hacking and typing messages at the speed of light, seven-zero-seven~!... eating nothing but honey and butter and chip, seven-zero-seven~! Monitoring every RFA member 24/7 through secret cameras, seven-zero-seven~!”

 _Is this… her theme song…?_ Yookyung sweatdropped. “You’re creepy, Seven. You better be joking about that.”

“Heh-heh-heh. Oh, you have no idea. You know last night, Zen and Jumin…” she paused and giggled. “Never mind, you’re too young for XXX stuff…”

“S-say _what?!_ ”

“All I want is to watch over sweet Elly, and my innocent eyes see more than they’re supposed to,” sighed Seven dramatically. “But look at my handsome, sweet prince now. Elly, my sweet Elly, how I miss—“

Seven abruptly fell silent at the other end of the line. She stayed silent for so long that Yookyung had to say ‘hello’ a couple of times just to make sure that the line wasn’t disconnected.

After some time, Seven’s voice came back softly, “What… what just…?”

“Seven…?”

“I gotta go, Yookyung,” was all she said before hanging up, leaving the college girl to stare at her phone in disbelief.

“Seriously, Seven…?!” She grumbled. The bus slowed down, and the foreign woman stood up to alight. Yookyung realized that it was her stop too.

With the men in suits trailing ominously behind her, she trudged to the familiar ice-cream shop, still closed for business. However, inside, MC was already up and about and preparing for opening. He seemed to be working on a new parfait when she walked by. He waved at Yookyung over-enthusiastically and gestured for her to come in.

“Hey, Supergirl! You’re here early~! What’s up?” he said, beaming like someone cast Kyrie Eleison inside the shop.

“Hey, _oppa,_ ” she said, clutching the straps of her backpack nervously. Right, what was her excuse again? She couldn’t very well tell MC about Unknown too—he’d freak out, call Seven, and send her home before she could do anything about it. “Um, it’s about the parfait you gave…”

“Oh. That…?” MC dramatically threw himself on the counter and sobbed. “I—I’m sorry Yookyung! Seveny just sent me an angry text about that! I didn’t know it would give you so much diarrhea!!!”

Yookyung’s face fell. “N—not so loud, MC _oppa_!! What the heck!”

A grumpy voice from behind the counter grumbled. “I knew it, Master of Ceremonies Lee. If I catch you without using the 90% alcohol again, you’re fired.”

“Yes boss! Sorry boss!” MC bowed profusely to his boss, making Yookyung burst out laughing.

“… dude, your name’s Master of Ceremonies Lee? I thought it was Main Character,” she said teasingly.

MC laughed. “Ah~ Busted! Oh, since you’re here, Yookyung,” he pushed his new ice cream creation closer to her, along with a clean spoon. “Before you say anything, I washed my entire body before I made this. Wanna taste?”

“Er,” said Yookyung, wrinkling her nose. MC described it as a PhD Pepper float made with vanilla, brown butter, and blue potato ice cream, topped further with honey and crushed Honey Buddha Chips.

“… I made it with Seveny in mind,” said MC with a sigh as he finished describing the float.

A wistful look flashed in his eyes. Yookyung knew that he missed her terribly. She tried to give him a reassuring smile. “Even though I end up barfing this out, _oppa,_ I’m sure that she’ll like this! You better make it for her in person, okay?”

“… yeah, okay!” he said, trying to regain the brightness in his smile. This was interrupted by the tinkling of the bell by the door. “Oh, excuse me, we’re closed—oh. It’s you again…”

Yookyung froze and almost dropped her spoon. She turned around and saw her again.

Green eyes that glowed. Skin as pale as paper. Shadows all over her face. Hair tucked neatly in a cap. A striking magenta dress. A piercing gaze, staring straight into her own wide, anxious, purple eyes.

“Rei… right?” MC smiled as brightly as before. “Come on in and join us!”

The young girl smiled enigmatically at the two of them and took her seat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh mannn. This hurt my heart to write. It was almost frightening writing in V's POV. I can't imagine what he went through and what he made himself go through in CS/DS/AS TT_TT  
> And Elly my sweet Elly what the heck am I doing to you.  
> Thanks so much for reading this far into my very odd story! Again, I will try my best to write in between my study breaks :)


	12. I Thought You Were Ready

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know this already but there are major spoilers ahead for Another Story (both V and Ray route).   
> Also, there's a not-overly detailed violent scene here. I'm sorry in advance. Please proceed with caution~

_707 has entered the chatroom._

707: why empty  
707: no ones answering thr phones  
707: V, Jina, Zen, im omw there  
707: I saw everything  
707: it look like the hacker did it

_Jae-jin Kang has entered the chatroom_

707: thwe buildingds entire security sysms bn hacked  
Jae-jin Kang: Lucille!  
707: Jaejin  
707: im omw there  
707: everyone safe??  
Jae-jin Kang: yes. I am with Ms. Han and Zen and V at the moment.  
Jae-jin Kang: but Elliot 3rd…  
707: I know  
707: we’ll find elly  
707: but it’s more important to keep everybody else safe  
707: and tell jina nt 2 call police ok  
707: not yet  
707: pls  
Jae-jin Kang: you… saw everything?  
707: ya  
707: um  
707: o;ll xplain l8r  
707: but pls w8 for me  
707: don’t let v leave

_707 has left the chatroom._

Jae-jin Kang: … the C&R’s security has been hacked?  
Jae-jin Kang: what is happening…

_Jae-jin Kang has left the chatroom._

* * *

 

_Please don ’t leave. Please don’t leave._

She was probably going at a hundred km/hour or so inside the city. She zoomed her fire-engine red baby sports car through the mess of the city in front of her. It was a miracle that she made it to the C&R offices in one piece and without the very police she wanted to avoid trailing behind her.

Numb. Her entire body and her entire mind was numb. She was awake for the past twenty or so hours. Before that she was awake for seventy two or so hours. All she wanted was that all of this was a complex hallucination brought about by lack of sleep.

She sneaked past the security detail at the back of the building as she is used to and hacked into the elevators that would bring her to Jina Han’s penthouse suites (she had long since been removed from the group of individuals allowed to get in there just ‘cause she loved her dear Elly too much) and rushed in her room with an illegal copy of Jae-jin’s key-card.

There were unexpectedly a lot of people milling about inside her unit--about ten or so armed bodyguards with communications devices hooked to their ears--who thankfully did not disable the bugs she placed inside Jina’s unit. At the center of the room, a stony-faced Jina Han barked out order after order to Jae-jin and the security team. V sat on the sofa next to a defeated-looking Zen. As she entered, all of them looked at her with mixed expressions of surprise and worry.

“I… I made it,” blurted out the young hacker. “V--and Jina--”

“Whoa there, Seven…” In the next instant, she was flanked at both sides by both Zen and Jae-jin. She felt the strong grip on both her arms, and it was only then that she realized that her face was close to the ground for some reason.

“N-no time… V- _unnie_ …. Jina… need to…” What the hell was happening to her mouth? It felt like a fine thread snapped in her entire body, and all her bones got disabled, and she was melting into a red-and-yellow pile of jelly onto the floor. _No! No time for jelly! Transform back! Transform back!_

“Oh my god, Seven! You look like shit!” Zen easily lifted her off her feet like she was a bag of Honey Buddha Chips (not even the XXL sized ones). “Jae-jin, could you pull her jacket off? She’s sweating bullets?”

“Lucille, please calm down,” said Jae-jin gently as he pried off her favorite hoodie off her body. What is up with Jina Han’s heating system? Seven didn’t know whether it was too hot or too cold, but she was sure that it was freakin’ uncomfortable. Somehow her body was covered in a thin layer of sweat, already soaking the red tank top she wore underneath. “Oh dear… you lost weight--you’ve been skipping meals, haven’t you?”

She wanted to answer that of course she didn’t. She ate Honey Butter Chips every hour and hydrated liberally with PhD pepper and SEVENSTAR for the last 20 or so hours. And she had a sandwich or something with lettuce and tomatoes in it maybe a day or so ago (and it was only when Vanderwood physically crammed it down her throat). “Urgh,” she answered unconvincingly.

Zen carried her to the nearest couch and forced her to lie down. V appeared next to her with a towel and began patting down her gross sweaty skin gently. Jae-jin ran to get ‘real’ food and water, and Jina Han commanded everybody else to leave the room.

“What’s going on, Seven?”

 _It’s you. You’re alive. You’re not a freakin’ ghost after all._ How long has it been since she last physically saw V? The woman who rescued them when they were on the run from her father? The woman who promised to take care of her despite the shady life she’s led until now? The woman who promised that  _she_ would always be safe from harm? Overcome with an emotion that she didn’t know she was holding in, Seven opened her mouth and let a sob escape. “ _Unnie_! P-please--please tell me--”

“Shh, ssh.” She felt V’s cool hands stroking her forehead and her hair gently. Somehow her head was on her lap. Her exhaustion didn’t feel as real as it did in that place. “There, there, Lucille, it’s all right, I’m here…”

She felt herself calm down only by a fraction. She took a shaky, deep breath to gain some more courage to talk about the thing that’s been bugging her this past week. “It’s… It’s a hacker, V! A hacker! The—the hacker stole Elly, and, and, we have to get him back! We have to… have to find her and stop her before she hurts Zen and Jina and Yookyung and MC and Jae-jin and anybody else! Before she h-hurts Unnie too! Before she hurts herself!”

There. She said it. As expected, V’s eyes widened at the things she said. Zen and Jae-jin had their mouths comically wide open, while Jina Han had both eyebrows raised and her lips pulled in a perfect, straight line.

After a period of silence of just listening to her breakdown, Jae-jin inhaled deeply and willed himself to ask, “Lucille… you know about the hacker?”  

Yes, she knew. The photo that Zen took showed a face identical to her own face. She knew, and she didn’t have the courage to admit it to herself, to plan her rescue, to stop all this before it was too late. _This is all my fault,_ she thought weakly. She had her face buried in V’s cardigan, which was beginning to get soaked in her tears and sweat and snot and spit. She began crying out deliriously. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing, V, be honest, we have to save her, don’t we, please V, we have to save her!”

With pain and sorrow and suffering in her soft voice, V only mumbled a repeated string of “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” to her ear. She felt the older woman stroking circles onto her back, but she didn’t say anything to confirm or deny what she just said.

“ _Unnie_ , please…”

“Lucille,” V said with a sigh. She obviously had trouble searching for the next words to say.

What did she want to hear, anyway? That Sera was hurting everybody else? Did she want to know why? The possibilities made her heart sink to the very depths of her ulcer-ridden stomach and made her weak and dizzy. “If you lied to me before I won’t yell at you, I won’t be angry with you until we see her…”

“… is the princess the hacker? Is that it…?”

To their surprise, Zen mumbled this very, very softly.

“The princess?” asked Jina Han incredulously. “What trivial thing are you talking about at this improper time, Zen?”

Seven looked up from V’s cardigan and sniffled in curiosity. Zen appeared baffled for a short while--it was obvious that he probably accidentally said out loud what he was thinking to himself. After sputtering angrily and confusedly at Jina Han for a short while, he stammered out, “Uh… Seven, I’m really sorry that I’m saying this now, ‘cause this will sound really strange… so you guys have to hear me out first, okay?”

The others in the room looked at him in bemused attention as he started telling them awkwardly about everything—how when he was little, he’d dream of his classmates getting into accidents, his teachers getting suspended for abuse, his friends in the motorcycle gang getting stabbed. How he’s failed every single time to stop the events from happening, even though he tried. How he’s never told anybody about this except for his brother, who scoffed at the whole thing.

Or something like that. Seven was getting more and more confused by the second and it was getting harder and harder to focus on the absurd story. _I really shouldn’t have had that last SEVENSTAR._

V nodded solemnly throughout the story. Jina had her arms crossed in front of her. “So are you about to tell us that you dreamed of a princess who hacked our app and my building and stole Elliot 3rd for no other reason but to terrorize the RFA?”

Zen scowled in embarrassment. “W-well, if you say it like that, it sounds…”

“Ridiculous. And likely irrelevant.” Jina sighed loudly as Zen grit his teeth loudly in frustration. If Seven wasn’t so emotional and stressed and tired and deathly frightened of the future and the welfare of her only sibling, she would have teased them about the way they acted, as if they didn’t have a steamy drunken make-out session the night before. _So many regrets,_ she sniffled silently.

“Th-that’s why I told you to hear me out first, you jerk! God, this is why I don’t tell this to other people!”

“I can believe in supernatural phenomena like dark magic and prophecies,” began Jina, staring at him dead in the eye, “but not in the almost _non sequitur_ statement about a princess that you’ve likely misinterpreted as a vision.”

Zen looked like he was ready to tear his hair out. In a noble attempt to interrupt their argument, Jae-jin cleared his throat and asked, “What made you think that the princess is related to all of this, Zen?”    

“W-well… how do I explain this… my dream this time was slightly different,” said Zen, furrowing his brow as he recalled the bizarre dream he had. “My dream wasn’t a scene like before. Don’t laugh, but… Elliot 3rd told me about stuff that was going to happen. Including the princess.”

Jae-jin gasped. “So you knew that he was going to get abducted?”

Jina nodded. “Elliot 3rd truly is remarkable. Now I can believe in this vision,” she muttered.

Zen ignored Jina’s remark and shook his head. “I didn’t know he would be cat-napped… all he told me at that time was that he would be gone and that I had things to do.” He stuck out his fingers one by one as he enumerated: “One: keep the Trust Fund Kid safe. Two: when the time comes, I have to rescue the furball. And Three: Save The Princess From The King.”

 _Save the princess from the king,_ repeated Seven in her head. _Could it be that Sera…_

Looking more and more lost at the conversation that occurred, V tilted her head curiously and uneasily said, “That’s… a little vague…”

“Yes, it is.” Jina had a frown on her face, one that meant that she was beginning to take him seriously. “Why would _you_  need to keep me safe? It’s been the other way around thus far, hasn’t it? And why must _you_ rescue my Elliot 3rd? And who are these members of the royalty? I highly doubt that they’re from Korea… could they be from England or from the African continent…?”

“God! I don’t know! It was your furball who told me all this! I… I don’t think he meant the last part literally, though,” said Zen, sighing in frustration.

“I have to agree with Ms. Han and V that all of this sounds vague,” said Jae-jin, still with a confused look in his face. “Are there any other details that you remember, Zen?”

“Wait…” Zen crunched up his face so hard that Seven knew he would regret this later when he sees new lines on his so-called Adonis-like face. He started muttering to himself out loud. “There was a dark, scary forest…. and then…. A castle. Up in the mountains. White walls.”

Seven felt V stiffen in her seat. She looked up at the older woman, who was getting paler and paler by the second as Zen continued.  

“A big garden with flowers that glowed… The furball was there when he came up to me and talked to me,” Zen held his head as he struggled with the details. “A… a giant black eye with green light—no, mint-coloured light around it… a white-haired girl in magenta—“

Something clattered in the room, interrupting Zen’s thoughts. Seven fell on the couch as V stood up stiffly and dropped her cane along the way. She had a look of despair plain on her face.

“Hyun… stop,” she whispered frantically. She never looked as close to breaking as she did then.

“Unnie… why are you reacting like that? Don’t tell me…” Weakly, Seven reached out to her and tugged at her sleeve. She looked so fragile that just the act of tugging seemed enough to pull her down to the floor in a heap.

And yet, V didn’t turn around to look at her. Instead, she kept her pale mint-coloured eyes focused on Zen. “Hyun… you weren’t supposed to be there…” was all she could say.

Zen only nodded. “That’s what the furball told me too. But he said that we have no choice.”

Jina strode towards V and slowly put both her hands on her friend’s shoulders. She looked straight into her eyes and said, in a low and authoritative voice. “Based on your reaction, V… you are keeping very important secrets from us. Tell us. Is there any truth to what Zen said so far?”

Jae-jin and Seven stared at her with their eyes wide in disbelief. V held her mouth closed in a thin line.

“It’s all real, isn’t it? It’s why you’re leaving the RFA to Jina Han. Why you’re gone all the time. Why you looked _so damn sure_ that something bad was going to happen to you when you were saying goodbye to us earlier!” Zen said, also staring at V in the eyes.

 _No way… it’s all real?_ “Unnie? Is Zen-oppa right?” Seven asked. She hated the way her voice shook. Hated the way she felt weaker and weaker by the second.

Hated the way that V looked even weaker and smaller than she did. V bit her lower lip and looked down. “I… I can’t say it, Hyun…” She wouldn’t face Seven.

 _Why won’t you tell me the truth, Unnie?_ Seven felt like somebody punched her in the gut. Jina Han saw her reaction, and with the tiniest bit of sympathy in her eyes, spoke to V once more. “You don’t have to say everything right now, V. But eventually, you’ll have to. There must be a reason why Zen had that dream. And I believe that it is because you aren’t allowed to carry these burdens alone. At least, not anymore.”

V remained in her silent form, her glistening pale eyes focused resolutely on her feet. Jina didn’t let her go; Seven guessed that if she did let go, V might actually collapse this time. When she spoke after what seemed like hours, she mumbled barely loud enough for Seven to hear, “It’s impossible, Jina… Hyun… I don’t want anybody else to be hurt any longer.”

“It’s kinda too late for that,” said Zen with a sigh. “Anyway, if it’s any consolation, it won’t be everyone. That furball told me specifically that it was just supposed to be you, me, and another person who will get him from that weird castle thing.”

“Another person?” asked Jae-jin. Seven and Jina looked up at the actor curiously. “Not someone from the RFA? Is that… all right?”

Zen held his forehead in an effort to remember. “Um… I don’t know him or her yet, but the name was Seyoung Choi…”

It wasn’t clear to her what happened next, but Seven was sure that she tried to jump from her place on the couch and instead ended up on the floor with a loud __thud.__ She scrambled to her feet and stared at Zen with pure, unfiltered rage in her face.

_Did I hear him right? Did I hear this fucker right?!_

Zen and Jae-jin flinched simultaneously as this occurred, and even more so when out of nowhere, Seven leapt at the silver-haired actor to clamp his mouth shut. They ended up crashing in the middle of the living room.

She screamed at his face, “You—you silver haired freak of nature!!! How did you know that?! How did you know that name?!”

She worked so hard--so fucking hard these years to protect her and Sera’s asses from their terrible mother and that terrible man who fucked their mother and caused the mess of her life. And all it took was a weird-ass dream to unravel her and her past?! _WTF you weird silver-haired magical alien! Dammit!_

“What the fuck!?! Seven, get off!” Zen cried as he tried to fight off the suddenly recharged girl who was struggling to keep his mouth shut. Jina watched this in mild amusement from the side. It only stopped when Jae-jin pulled the girl off of him and dropped her on the sofa.

Bewildered and feeling more disoriented than ever, Seven started growling like an angry cat. Paradoxically, V started laughing, even as she wiped the sorrowful tears from her eyes. She dropped next to Seven and captured her in a tight embrace, instantly calming the smaller girl down.

“Seyoung… it’s all right. It just means that he’s telling the truth… and it’s my turn to tell the truth too.”

“V…” Seven relaxed both her hands and let the silver strands she pulled off of Zen’s head float gently to the floor. She felt V take a deep breath and lift her head up to look at everybody in the eye.

V appeared infinitely sad as she recounted her story. While a great weight appeared to be easing themselves off her shoulders, with every staggered and uneasy word that went out from her mouth, a constricting feeling made itself manifest in the pit of Seven’s stomach. Around the room, the feelings were apparent: fear. Anxiety. Disbelief.

V told them everything--about Ryung's past, how he found V's photographs, how he loved her but then changed his mind--how he accidentally killed the twins' mother-- _that monster of a woman--_ in a fit of rage, and how he was never the same after that. How he abused her and left her and the rest of the RFA and founded Mint Eye, and how he's working hard now to get everyone to join him...

_And Sera... poor Sera..._

V looked at Seven before she mentioned her twin. She nodded weakly, and it was only then that V revealed bits and pieces of the twins' past. She confirmed that indeed, Sera was the princess trapped within the walls of Magenta, doing all of Ryung's bidding, including tricking MC, hacking the RFA, and even poisoning Zen.

(V didn't mention anything about Seven's father, and she felt some gratitude towards her for that.)

Yet the young hacker sat like a stone in her position, unable to say anything, unable to process anything. Sera was probably... brainwashed? Why would Ryung do that to her? He was their _oppa_... he promised to take care of her, to not let anything hurt her while Seven...

 _It's because you abandoned her, you dummy. You idiot._ She clenched her fists and barely stopped herself from hitting herself.

She felt her phone vibrate incessantly, but she felt too weak to even pull it out of her pocket to silence it further.

V inhaled slowly and nodded. “Seyoung… I made so many mistakes… I’ve decided from the start that I’ll fix them on my own and save her by myself, but…”

“… no, Jihye.” Jina Han had the most serious and grave look that Seven had ever known her. “As I have said before, you are not allowed to do these things on your own. Not anymore.”

V sighed. “I know, but--”

“No buts.” Jina sat beside them on the floor and held both of V’s hands. “You told me this morning that I am the leader of the RFA from now on, right? So you better start doing as I say.”

“A-all right…”

“Good.” Jina looked up at Jae-jin, who immediately stood to attention like a soldier. “Assistant Kang. Organize the intelligence unit within the soonest possible time. Use my personal funds as you see fit. I require this to be accomplished before the end of the day.”

“Yes, Ms. Han.” In the next instant, Jae-jin turned around and started making phone calls.

She then looked up at Zen, who was still stunned over the story. “Zen. Did Elliot 3rd mention anything else of importance in your vision?”

A bit confounded that Jina Han, of all people, seemed to be believing in his shitty weird dream that revealed too much, Zen made his wrinkly thinking face again. “Um… he said that if I did anything wrong, he’ll poop in my shoe--”

“Very good, Elliot.”

Zen frowned before continuing. “Oh, also, that Jae-jin and Yookyung and some other guy named... er, Min-chul Lee… or something like that... they weren’t allowed to come with us when we rescue the furball.”

Somehow, when Jina and Zen mumbled about who the person could be, Seven had the presence of mind to answer quickly, “MC.” 

Yes, the same MC who became her favorite person in the world, who tried to hide his true name because of some inconsequential messed-up thing he did in the past (which, to be honest, was nothing compared to the countless minor agency missions that Seven was previously involved). It was cute the way he thought he could hide his identity from Seven. But like Seven, he knew what it felt like to have a past that could bite him in the ass at any point in time, and…

_Wait… MC…!!_

She barely heard the people around her asking her about MC. She fumbled through her pocket and fished out her phone and saw that Vanderwood called her about 17 times already.

Ignoring the impending feeling of doom deep within her gut, she redialed her co-agent’s number.

Vanderwood picked up the phone and said, “Finally you called back, you little shit.”

* * *

 

_… Rei…?_

Yookyung marvelled at how the temperature of the room suddenly dropped, and how her stomach suddenly felt like crumpling into itself. The enigmatic smile never leaving her face, the mysterious girl walked up to the seat next to her and never took her mint-coloured eyes off of her.

Unfazed, MC still had a big, welcoming smile on his face. “What brings you here, Rei? I’m sorry I can’t serve you anything yet since we’re closed.”

Rei shook her head. “My friend Yookyung and I need to talk.” Her voice was soft and floated around the room like a ghost. A chill went down the college girl’s spine when she heard her name.

“Oh… Yookyung, you didn’t tell me you were friends! What a coincidence!” He had a curious glint in his eyes, but MC did not appear suspicious in the least. _Is he really dense? MC, that’s why you get targeted by hackers and shit!_

“U-um… She told me that she wanted… to talk to me about something. Just, really quick. Sorry I didn’t tell you,” stammered Yookyung. Intending to bring the girl far, far away from MC, she stood up to move for a booth, but Rei stopped her with a strong grip to her arm.

She felt the coldness of the girl’s hand even through the denim jacket that she wore. The girl shook her head and gestured for her to remain seated. “It’s okay if we talk right here, Yookyung Kim. It… might help MC- _ _oppa__  if he hears this too, don’t you think?”

“I—I dunno, Rei. He really doesn’t need to be i-involved with our problems,” began Yookyung. Even though it was cold, beads of sweat were beginning to form on her forehead. And yet, MC remained oblivious.

“Problems? Yookyung, if you have any sort of trouble, you know I’m here for you, right? Me and the rest of the RFA?” MC now had a look of worry apparent in his amber eyes.

 _Please don’t get involved. Please don’t get involved,_ Yookyung tried in desperation to communicate with her eyes. Something was wrong, she knew it in the depths of her gut. This girl was really Unknown, and Yookyung knew that she was more dangerous than she expected. So what choice did she have except to do as the girl said? Even if she said no before and told V and Seven, the RFA would suffer, and…

Rei shook her head. “The… RFA cannot help her with this problem. It’s only up to you and me, MC.”

Her phone seemed so far away in her pocket—Seven would know what to do, Jina and Jae-jin would send more people to help her, Zen would practically come running to where she was to rescue her…

“… you know about the RFA?” asked MC. Now the look of worry was in his eyes.

The girl only smiled back at him. She took off her cap, letting her ghost-white bob fall around her chin. Streaks of pink hair fell over her forehead.

The shadows of her cap gone, Yookyung saw the face of Lucille Choi staring back at them. A sardonic smile that Seven would __never__ wear was plastered over her mouth.

MC slowly turned paler and paler. Simultaneously, about half of the bodyguards fell to the ground, with half of them holding Tasers in one hand and guns in the other. Some of them apprehended MC’s boss, who now had his hands behind his head and his head near the floor.

“… it’s you,” MC mumbled in a low voice. “You’re…”

Rei nodded. “It’s… time for me to confess.” She went forward and fished something from her pocket—a beautiful, heart-shaped flask with glowing green liquid swirled ominously as she cupped it in two hands and presented it to MC. “It’s me, MC. I loved you ever since I first saw you. I wish I didn’t give you to the fools of the RFA. Please take me back.”

 _That’s…!!_ Yookyung felt her body being pulled backward by somebody twice her size, her arms being restrained behind her. “MC, don’t!!! That’s ‘Elixir’! The one she gave Zen- _ _oppa__!!!” She would have said something more, but the bodyguard who had her clamped her mouth shut.

MC appeared conflicted—Yookyung could see that something in Rei’s face was pulling him in. As if he needed to force himself to look away, he closed his eyes and stepped back. “Rei, stop this. Who told you to do these bad things? This… this isn’t you,” he stammered.

“… bad…?” Rei tilted her head as if she were genuinely curious. “MC… I’ve told you a lot of times that we’re only trying to save everybody, right?  And that we’re __so, so grateful__ to you and all that you’ve done for us. We—Saviour and I and everybody at Magenta—we just want everybody to be happy and safe from all the bad things in this world…”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” mumbled MC. “So it’s me…? It’s because of me?”

 _ _MC, don’t listen to her!!!__ Yookyung continued to struggle.

“Min-chul,” Rei called out. MC froze. The reaction widened her smile. “We want Min-chul __oppa__ to be safe first. And then Yookyungie. And then… we’ll also have to get back Zen- _ _oppa__ and Jaejin- _oppa_ and Ms. Han… you don’t have to worry about being alone.” She placed the flask in MC’s hands and looked up at him expectantly. “All you have to do is drink.”

MC looked at Rei, and then at Yookyung. Hot tears were already at the corners of her eyes as the muffled sounds she made behind the guard’s hand softened and softened. He bit his lip in determination.

“If… if I take this, Rei… can you promise to leave the rest of the RFA alone?”

 _NO OPPA WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!_ Yelled Yookyung, but no intelligible words could escape from her trapped mouth.

Rei only smiled. “… it will be up to the Saviour… but I can tell him of your wishes.”

_NO STOP MC, PLEASE, YOU MIGHT DIE, DON’T DO THIS, DON’T—_

“… Yookyung… tell Seveny not to worry, all right?” MC was looking right into her eyes with a sorrowful look, one that Yookyung’s never seen on his usually happy demeanor.

_STOP STOP STOP STOP_

MC closed his eyes, pinched his nose, and drank the liquid in one swig. Tears were at the corners of his eyes as he struggled to keep the liquid down—a bit of it spilled at the corners of his mouth—but he was able to take all of it in. When he finished, he coughed and gasped and fell to the ground, clutching his chest. The flask fell to the floor in a million sharp shards.

He was losing consciousness in front of Yookyung. All she could do was scream.

Rei knelt to the floor and grasped MC’s face. As he coughed and sputtered and tried to look up at her with his half-lidded eyes and dilated pupils, Yookyung heard her whisper, “It’ll be okay, __oppa.__ If you don’t survive this, well… at least I won’t have to smell you anymore, right…?”

She let him go, and two guards whisked him away to the back of the shop. The sounds of a group of vans revving up filled the air as Rei strode towards Yookyung. The guards let her go, and suddenly she was so weak that all she could do was to fall on the floor on her knees. Tears streamed down her face.

The girl knelt before her, threw off her gloves, and held her face roughly with two hands. Yookyung saw at that moment that the look in her eyes was… different. Wilder. More deranged. More depraved…

“Yookyungie~ my favourite… well, not anymore,” she said mockingly. A sinister smile was creeping up steadily on her face, such that in the next moment, her green eyes were wide and demonic and a cackle was escaping from her lips. Dark circles were prominent under her eyes, making her look more like a ghost. Yookyung doubted that this was the girl that MC claimed was her friend… well at least, not anymore.

“W—what did you do t-to him?! Y-you… you’re k-killing—“

“No, you ditz, we’re _saving_ him. Haven’t you been listening?!” One of the girl’s ungloved hands caressed the side of her face gently, then slapped her in the next moment. Yookyung felt a sharp pain as she felt one of the girl’s thumbs press into her left eye. She screamed and screamed, but the girl only pushed and pushed until blood started to flow at the side of her face.

“… poor Yookyung,” sighed the girl mockingly as her victim cried out in pain. “I thought you were ready, but I see that V still has your weak li’l mind poisoned. So I can’t take you to see the Saviour yet. It’s all right though… you can be my favourite again once you’re ready to play with me. You can be my own, personal toy…”

The girl kissed her on the mouth slowly, roughly. She felt her bite down on her lower lip, drawing blood. She couldn’t breathe—the scent of lilies and the taste of pain overwhelmed her senses and suffocated her. When it was over, the girl licked the side of her face—the one with blood streaming down from her eye—and threw her on the floor.

There was so much pain—her left eye was worthless, her right eye was blurred with tears. She heard brief orders and sirens and the sound of feet marching out of the shop. She didn’t know for how long she remained there. She didn’t know whether it was seconds or minutes or hours later when a beautiful woman in black and purple and what was probably leopard-print came up to her and carried her.

“There there, little girl. I got you. That little shit’s gone now.” She spoke Korean fluently, but Yookyung heard an accent she couldn’t place. “Ugh… why the fuck isn’t that other little shit picking up her damned phone?”

These were the last things that Yookyung heard before she allowed herself to lose consciousness.

* * *

_He exhaled loudly, watching the tendrils of smoke float out from his nostrils and mouth and out into the open air of the city. It was night-time, and the urban cityscape glowed beautifully with neon lights of all colours. Although it previously gave him comfort, the sight of it made him feel more lost and alone than he usually allowed himself to feel._

_He stared blankly at the cigarette in his hands. Has it actually been a week since Zen went into a coma? Since the nurses handed him all of the actor ’s belongings in a little plastic bag? Since he looked at the packet of Lucky Strokes and decided to smoke them as long as he continued his sleep?_

_Speaking of which… how long has it been since Yoosung updated him on Zen’s condition? He checked his phone and saw that it was a mere ten minutes ago. He locked his phone and ignored the tired, unshaven reflection that stared back at him._

_He had gotten used to the feel of the smoke, and he didn’t cough as much as before. He wasn’t sure whether that was a fortunate thing. He mustn’t let himself be addicted to nicotine. He mustn’t hold on to a worthless crutch, just because he felt helpless, just because his Zen wouldn’t wake up--_

_He inhaled once more, letting the menthol trace a cool line down to his throat and lungs. Another puff of smoke floated in the air. He let the negative thoughts float away with them… in vain._

_Somebody behind him cleared her throat. “Mr. Han. Still smoking, I see.”_

_“Assistant Kang. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from appearing within my vicinity while I do this activity. Did you know that second-hand smoke is more harmful than first-hand smoke?”_

_“Yes sir. However I would like to remind you that it is more sensible for you to stop smoking rather than asking me not to inhale second-hand smoke from appearing within your vicinity.”_

_Jumin didn’t argue, but didn’t let go of the cancer stick between his fingers. He brought it up to his lips once more, making Assistant Kang sigh._

_“Mr. Han, I actually came up here to update you of the findings of the Intelligence Unit,” she began. She held a sheaf of paper of moderate thickness in a folder in front of her. When Jumin made it apparent that he was disinterested in reading through the report, she tucked it under her arm neatly. “In summary, we have made staggered contact with Seven, V, and MC, and their ally, Vanderwood. This was approximately seven hours ago, but contact is now once more barred, such that we have no idea on the status of our associates. Our unit of hackers is now trying to break through the wall that username Unknown has created.”_

_“I see. Have we any updates on the location?”_

_Assistant Kang shook her head. “Once we break through, we have a better chance of tracking them down.” Her phone rang once, and she turned around to answer it._

_Jumin inhaled once more as he listened to his assistant make a few affirmative noises. She hung up and looked up at him with grim determination in her brown eyes. “Sir. It’s time.”_

_He nodded. He dropped the half-finished cigarette on the floor and stomped on it. He let Assistant Kang lead the way as he readjusted his suit jacket. Trying to ignore the feelings of doom welling up in his chest--about Zen or the rest of the RFA--he stood up straight and focused all his energy on the matters at hand._

_He was the leader of the RFA now, and Jumin Han had things to do._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this chapter took so long~! I re-wrote the first part of this story three times huhuhu I finally settled with Seven's POV 'cos she has it the hardest of all the rest of the RFA.  
> I'm working hard on a happy ending so dont worry haha but yeah things are appearing pretty bleak TT_TT and we aren't even done yet with Glam Choi and Echo Girl hahahaha  
> What is even going on right now lol I don't even know! As always, thank you for reading and commenting if you do. You guys give me so much motivation :)


	13. Welcome To My Little Paradise

_ZEN has entered the chatroom._   
_Jina Han has entered the chatroom._ _  
_ _V has entered the chatroom._

ZEN: yookyung isnt here  
Jina Han: indeed.  
V: I’m so worried  
V: I can’t believe what’s happening  
ZEN: she’ll be okay  
ZEN: seyoung says her friend rescued her  
ZEN: so we just have to believe it  
V: I know  
V: still… I can’t believe that the hacker would do that to her and MC…  
V: this is all my fault  
V: username Unknown, if you’re reading this, please stop this…  
V: You… have hurt us enough.  
V: You do not need to do this.  
V: there is a better way  
Jina Han: Do not encourage her to communicate through this app, V.  
Jina Han: We will communicate with her more properly, in more appropriate channels. In due time.  
V: … all right.  
ZEN: Anyways, Yookyung, if you could read this  
ZEN: We’re on our way to the hospital.  
ZEN: Jaejin’s driving Seyoung’s sportscar and we’re with Jina.  
Jina Han: By Seyoung, Zen means Seven.  
Jina Han: He seems to have forgotten that you were not physically there during this morning’s encounter  
Jina Han: and that you were involved in a different event entirely.  
ZEN: ;;  
ZEN: oi trust fund can u not  
Jina Han: What?  
ZEN: nvm  
V: We’ll update you personally, Yookyung.  
V: I hope you would… allow me to speak with you about these things.  
ZEN: V…

_YOOKYUNG <3 has entered the chatroom. _

ZEN: Yookyung!  
YOOKYUNG<3: Hi  
YOOKYUNG<3: Wow this app is pretty neat  
YOOKYUNG<3: The interface could use some work but  
YOOKYUNG<3: I didn’t think that 707 knew how to put together stuff like this.  
V: ?  
Jina Han: Excuse me?  
YOOKYUNG<3: Oh, right. Sorry.  
YOOKYUNG<3: I’m Agent 707’s colleague.  
ZEN: Oh. You were the one who helped Yookyung?  
YOOKYUNG<3: Yep.  
ZEN: she called u penderwood or something right  
Jina Han: Vanderwood.  
YOOKYUNG<3: Yes, that’s my code name  
Jina Han: Really, Zen  
Jina Han: Please pay more attention  
ZEN: … ugh;;  
ZEN: but I remember your name  
ZEN: Wasn’t Seven saying that she had a butler named Marcus Vanderwood 3rd?  
YOOKYUNG<3: UGH THAT BRAT  
Jina Han: So I am assuming that you are not her butler  
YOOKYUNG<3: No of course not.

_YOOKYUNG <3 has sent an attachment: IMG808.jpg _

ZEN: Ohhhh  
Jina Han: A maid, then?  
YOOKYUNG<3: NO! God  
YOOKYUNG<3: I just said that I’m a colleague  
YOOKYUNG<3: more like a handler really  
Jina Han: I see  
Jina Han: So I suppose your responsibilities include assisting agent 707  
Jina Han: making sure that she is able to work optimally  
YOOKYUNG<3: Yes  
Jina Han: Considering Seven’s personality and habits  
Jina Han: I assume that includes ensuring that she sleeps properly, eats properly  
Jina Han: maintaining her proper hygiene  
Jina Han: maintaining a clean and acceptable living and working condition  
Jina Han: contacting and updating the agency about her performance and progress    
Jina Han: making sure she does not run off to do extraneous activities such as harassing my cat or making new toys  
YOOKYUNG<3: … well… yeah I guess  
ZEN: um…  
Jina Han: Her tasks seem to be a mixture of Assistant Kang’s and my butler’s responsibilities  
YOOKYUNG<3: …  
YOOKYUNG<3: can we talk about something else  
YOOKYUNG<3: suddenly I don’t feel so good about myself  
ZEN: ;; all right  
V: Ms. Vanderwood  
V: How is Yookyung doing?

_YOOKYUNG <3 has sent an attachment: RFAmember5.jpg_

V: Oh my…  
V: There are so many bandages over her face  
YOOKYUNG<3: She’s all right now.  
YOOKYUNG<3: The doctors said that this isn’t the time to operate yet since everything is so swollen  
YOOKYUNG<3: So for now, medications and rest  
YOOKYUNG<3: She actually asked me to log on to see if the rest of your group was all right.  
V: All right  
V: Please tell her that I’m sorry.  
Jina Han: V…  
YOOKYUNG<3: you’re on your way here right?  
ZEN: yeah  
ZEN: we’re close actually  
YOOKYUNG<3: Username V might wanna tell her these things in person instead  
YOOKYUNG<3: And you guys might definitely wanna hear what happened earlier  
Jina Han: Of course.  
Jina Han: We are here.  
Jina Han: It seems that Assistant Kang and Seven arrived there minutes ago.  
YOOKYUNG<3: Right.  
YOOKYUNG<3: I’ll see you.

_ZEN has left the chatroom._  
_V has left the chatroom._  
_Jina Han has left the chatroom._  
_YOOKYUNG <3 has left the chatroom. _

* * *

 

Yookyung lay down on her hospital bed glumly. Seeing through one eye and feeling the searing pain over the left side of her face was terrible, but it wasn’t as bad as the heavy feelings of guilt crushing her heart into tiny useless pieces.

She felt so bad that she only half-minded that the woman called Vanderwood, who rescued her earlier, kept bugging the nurses about the placement of Yookyung’s bandages. “It’s off by 20 degrees.” “It’s not placed evenly over the right side of her forehead.” “Her hair’s too crumpled up over this side.” “There’s a huge air pocket over this part come on are you even really a nurse.” “Don’t just tear that tape off! Use sanitized scissors! What, you don’t have scissors? I don’t care if it’s scored, you still need scissors!”

It was tolerable at first, but when Yookyung’s skin began to sting from the nurses ripping off and replacing the medical tape, she decided to distract the obsessive-compulsive woman by asking her to log on to the messenger. She took about five minutes to snap photos of herself and of Yookyung before she logged off and handed her her smartphone back.

“I spoke with a fellow called Zen and two other women named V and Jina Han,” said the woman as she took her seat next to Yookyung’s bed. “They’re on their way up here. 707 and Jae-jin might arrive any second now.”

“Thank you, Ms. Vanderwood.”

“Vanderwood is all right.” She stared at Yookyung’s face and frowned a little. “It’s not your fault that those things happened, you know.”

She didn’t say anything. Tears were escaping at the corners of both the blonde girl’s good and bad eye before she even realized it.

“Not the time for tears, little girl,” mumbled the agent as she methodically patted both eyes free of tears. “Seven was monitoring you for a reason. It seems that this dangerous thing that you got involved in was preconceived. It doesn’t look like you could have done anything else in that situation.”

_I could have just told Seven and V about Unknown,_ she thought as another wave of guilt crashed and overwhelmed her. _That girl would still be angry, but… she wouldn’t have done that to MC._

_It’s my fault that MC-oppa drank the elixir. What if… what if he’s brainwashed now? Or in a coma? What if he’s a different person now?_  

She never felt despair like this. It hurt her physically and numbed her body at the same time. She kept hearing MC’s voice and hacking coughs over and over again, and the sound of his body crashing to the floor. She remembered the scent of lilies and the taste of blood and the sting over her face when the girl hit her. She remembered those eyes, that hair, that ghost-white skin…

The door burst open, and in went a familiar red-haired girl and a taller, brown-haired man with glasses. They turned to her and simultaneously cried out her name.

_Rei…_

 Rei’s face was coming closer and closer to her. Her arms went around her neck. “Yookyungie,” she said sweetly, mockingly…

“Yookyung!”

She blinked once, and the world seemed to refocus around her. Jae-jin, Vanderwood, and Seven were looking at her with worried expressions on their faces.

“Wha… what happened…?” she slurred out.

“Yookyung, you look pale. Are you all right? You’re shaking!” cried Jae-jin, again with worry. “Perhaps we should call a nurse…”

“No, Jae-jin, I’m okay, please don’t…” she said. Seven’s face was _so close_ to hers, and even though it’s a face that she should feel relieved to see, a sickening wave of nausea and fear hit her instead.

__“__ Yookyung?” said Seven uneasily. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

_Calm down,_ she thought in desperation. _Focus on something else._ Seven’s hair was different--not ghost white, not pink, just her usual, natural, messy head of crimson. Seven’s tone was different--not soft and sweet or wild and angry. Seven’s clothes were different. Seven’s glasses were different…

Seven’s eyes were different. They weren’t mint-coloured and hungry and angry and depraved. They were gold and bright and kind, and right now they’re starting to glisten with tears…

“Seven… I’m sorry.” She couldn’t do it. She had to close her eyes, had to bury her face in her hands to will all those scary images away. Why were her hands shaking? What the hell was even going on? Why did that girl look like Seven anyway?

Yookyung felt somebody else pull the small girl off of her. “She’s still a little shaken with what happened earlier. The girl who did this to her looked a little too much like you.”

Seven made a small sound of understanding. Yookyung heard her walk a little farther away from her bed and from her. When she looked up from her hands, she saw Jae-jin looking at her with worry and sadness and pity in his brown eyes.

“Yookyung, I’m sorry for everything that happened… this is all my fault,” Seven said from one corner of the room where she was sure that the blonde patient would not see her. “If… if I did a better job of protecting the RFA… if I wasn’t so weak and worthless from keeping the hacker from--”

_No, it’s my fault, Seven… please don’t cry… I’m the weak one here. I was there and I couldn’t protect MC… you must hate me…_

The foreign woman sighed. “Come on… enough of this blame game. Seven, I’ve never seen you act so meek and pathetic before. This isn’t you.”

“But Francesca!”

“Stop calling me that!” She lightly tapped the redhead at the back of her head, making Jae-jin flinch visibly. “It’s Vanderwood!”

Seven sniffled from her spot and didn’t move. “Thank you for helping us out, by the way…”

“That’s true. I understand that this is beyond your job description,” said Jae-jin, his glasses flashing as he held out his hand to shake Vanderwood’s hand. “On behalf of the RFA, thank you for assisting our members in their time of need.”

“It’s fine… if it will make this runt concentrate on her agency work better, I technically have to do it,” answered the agent with a sigh. “Seriously though, your group is seriously messed up if those kinds of dangerous people are after your heads. And I’m worried about that fellow who had to take that huge dose of ‘Elixir’…”

Yookyung heard bits and pieces of Vanderwood’s conversation with Seven while she was at the emergency room--she had already told them about Rei, MC, and the bodyguards who infiltrated and betrayed them. And how weak and useless Yookyung was during the whole ordeal.

“Yookyung. Listen.” To her surprise, Jae-jin was holding onto her shoulder and was staring into her good eye intently. “This isn’t your fault. The RFA will rescue MC. So we want you to concentrate on feeling better. Okay?”

“... okay…” She tried to believe him, truly, but the sound she made was not convincing in any way.

Their conversation was interrupted when the door burst open once more. Through her good eye, she saw the concerned faces of Zen, Jina, and V. They called out to her and came closer, simultaneously worried and relieved and apologetic. Zen was all over her in the next moment, asking whether she was okay and whether she was hurt anybody else and not to worry because he’ll take care of the thugs who did this to her, and she was barely able to look him in the eye as he did so.

Behind him, Jina gave Yookyung a warmer look than usual and was speaking with a refusing Vanderwood about how she is to be rewarded on behalf of the RFA and berating Seven who was still hiding in her corner. And V was rubbing one arm slowly and uneasily as her pale eyes regarded Yookyung’s in what looked like remorse.

“Zen… and everyone else. May I please speak with Yookyung alone?” The mint-haired woman looked like she was trying to regain her courage as she said this. Looking at her, Yookyung felt uneasy--it was not the usual irritation or distrust that she thought she had for V, but rather a feeling that she was about to learn something she didn’t want to learn.

The look that everyone else had on their faces spoke volumes to the bedridden girl. They nodded grimly in unison and stepped out of the room.

“... V? What’s going on?” asked Yookyung weakly. Chills came to her in one wave after another as the older woman took a seat next to her and reached for her hand.

“Yookyung… I’ve dreaded this moment from the very beginning, but you are the one who deserves to know this more than anybody else.”

* * *

 

Zen leaned against the wall of the hallway outside Yookyung’s room and stared blankly into space. V must be telling Yookyung all of the hard truth bombs that she’d revealed to them earlier. Jae-jin excused himself to take care of the intelligence unit assignment that his boss gave him, followed by a despondent Seven who looked like she had the life drained out of her. The attractive foreigner who called herself Vanderwood went off somewhere to disinfect all of her clothing (she didn’t like being exposed to all these fatal hospital-acquired pathogens, or so she said). It was only him and Jina Han, who spoke briefly to Yookyung’s attending MD, who waited for the very uncomfortable conversation inside to end.

He barely snapped back to reality until Jina Han said her thank-you’s to the ophthalmologist, who then excused himself. The woman turned to him, the usual aloof expression on her face once more. “This is troublesome, Zen,” she said.

“I know.” There was a subtle twitch at the corner of her mouth and a very fine crease appearing at her brow, and Zen instantly knew that the stony-faced woman was actually expressing a new human emotion. “How are you feeling?”

“It’s senseless to enumerate all of my physical symptoms right now. However, Assistant Kang previously defined all of these as feeling ‘upset,’ ‘anxious,’ and ‘threatened’. I… I feel considerably worse than before, if I am being completely honest.”

Her dark eyes shone anxiously, her eyebrows creased further, and she actually bit her lip in worry. Zen knew that somewhere deep inside her, her robot heart was malfunctioning. Without really thinking about it, he put her arms around her and stroked her back.

As expected, she tensed at his touch. “Why are you being intimate, Zen? I daresay this isn’t the proper place for this.”

“Can’t you just be quiet and take this, you damn upset robot?” he said, trying not to sound too annoyed. “This is what friends do to comfort friends.”

“Hm,” said Jina skeptically. “Is this supposed to make me feel better?”

“... I don’t know. Do you feel better?” Maybe he should stop being so forward. Just because they were intimate the night before… To be honest, it felt like hugging a literal machine made with actual cold metal since she was so stiff, but she relaxed slightly as the seconds passed by.

She made a sound as if she thought about it seriously. “I… I am not sure… I’ve never had to deal with this much personal conflict before. Not since my parents’ divorce, and not since Ryung’s supposed suicide. And I thought I handled those things well. And yet now…” To his surprise, he felt her two delicate hands push him gently away from her.  

She stared at him with those dark charcoal eyes. Were they… glistening just now?

“Trust Fund?”

She opened her mouth to speak, and closed it again. It was rare for her to not have the words to say, and the sight of it made Zen question reality again. She finally mustered her strength to say, “I… I don’t like this. First, the V I knew wasn’t honest. Then Elliot 3rd leaves. Then MC is gone… And now you have to leave too?”

Zen flinched. Of course she was feeling like shit all along. Even though she had to keep up a strong front in front of V and everybody else who was at the verge of crumbling. Because she was the leader now, because she had to keep everybody safe.

Still, it was a big shock for him to see actual, hot tears flowing from her eyes. “O-oi now, Jina--” he began. He’d never felt so lost as he had before that moment.

Seeing his look of surprise, Jina brought one hand to her cheek and froze when she felt the tears for herself. “This… this is…” she said. Her usual monotone had a hint of horror in it as she looked at her damp fingers. “I… I must be ill… this isn’t--”

“Trust Fund.” Despite the situation, Zen brought the very confused and too-damn-beautiful robot of a woman into his arms once more.

“Zen, ignore these infernal tears and listen--”

“I know, I know. I’ll be back before you know it, Jina,” he murmured into her ear. “We’ll get that damn furball and MC back, and we’ll be back here before you know it, all right? We can go back to being engaged and I’ll be back to doing all that weird shit you want me to do until you tell me to stop.”

“But it’s dangerous. If I keep you here… If I get somebody else to go there in your place…”

“Yeah… but I made a promise to Elliot. There’s no telling what will happen if we did something else.” He stepped back and looked at her seriously in her eyes. “You know that, right?”

Jina looked up at him, still with those watery eyes, and nodded in her usual curt way. There wasn’t any other way, there wasn’t any time to hesitate, and they both knew it. She was about to say something else when a violent crash sounded behind them.

They turned around simultaneously and saw a very angry Vanderwood holding a man twice her size by the collar. Bits of crushed black metal and plastic and broken glass littered the floor underneath her boot.

“You bastard. Not even sorry that I have to disinfect myself of your scum-ass paparazzi germs. How many of you are out there?!” she snarled, her pale complexion turning redder and redder by the second.

“N-n-n-none ya business! AGH!” The fat man cried as he was thrown across the floor, making the nurses and hospital staff scurry away in fear. Before Vanderwood could advance further, he scampered away as fast as his little legs could take him and disappeared.  

The woman clicked her tongue and rummaged through the mess of plastic on the floor and picked up an SD card. “You two should pick a more private place to talk. I caught that guy taking photos of you like a creep,” she announced, crushing the card in between two insanely strong fingertips.

“Shit. Glam Choi,” he muttered under his breath. He almost forgot about that woman and that asshole, Spencer, and Echo Girl. What convoluted story are they going to come up with this time?

“Zen. Do not worry about them.” To his surprise, Jina Han had a new resolute look in her eyes. She wiped her tears clean off both eyes and looked directly at Vanderwood. “I appreciate your efforts, Ms. Vanderwood. Thank you. However, it is unnecessary to stop them if you see any more of them. Unless, of course, they take unwarranted photos of you and your co-agent as well.”

Jina, of course, was talking about Seven. “... you sure?” Vanderwood shrugged. “Well… okay. You don’t have to worry about the two of us though. That little runt will find a way to erase us by hacking, one way or another.”

Later on, V emerged from Yookyung’s room, looking more exhausted than Zen had ever seen her. “It’s… It’s fine now,” she said. The whites of her eyes were blood-shot, but they were not as guarded as they were before.

“How is Yookyung?”

V shook her head. “She was quiet for a long time. She asked me to do what I think I needed to do after a while and asked me to leave her be for the time being…” She sighed deeply and mumbled, “She… she really, truly hates me now… and why wouldn’t she?”

“Don’t say that V. She just needs time to process everything.” Who wouldn’t? Zen felt like he needed to go brood in outer space about all the truth bombs that just exploded in his face--and he wasn’t even in the right universe. What more for Yookyung, who had Ryung up in that pedestal?

Come to think of it… _does that mean that Rika and the V I know are involved in the same mess?_ He tried to shake the thought away from his head--not good to make things more complicated than they already were…

“I suppose you’re right, Zen,” said V in utter desolation.

Jina nodded. “And the rest of us do not have enough time as it is, V. Whatever Yookyung feels for you now, I would like to ask you to put it behind you and focus on the problem in front of us.”

“Y… yes, of course, Jina.”

The businesswoman’s strong front was up once more, and there was a visceral need for everybody else to follow her orders suddenly. “We’ll discuss our strategies on the messenger app. For the meantime, Ms. Vanderwood, I would have to ask you to look over Yookyung Kim for the time being.”

“... eh? Why me?”

“As you reported to us, it seems that the C&R’s security detail was infiltrated. I do not want any incidents such as what happened earlier.”  

Vanderwood looked very, very reluctant as she thought about it. “I get the apprehension, but… this is really way beyond than my agency work. You can’t imagine the trouble we’ll be in if 707 and I were caught doing these things for a different organization.”

Without the resolute look leaving her face, Jina Han said authoritatively, “If you do this for us, I’ll make it so you do not have to stay with that agency anymore.”

“Jina?!” Zen and V looked at her incredulously. The foreign woman laughed briefly.

“Eh? Am I hearing this right?” Vanderwood gave her a look as if she was saying something completely ridiculous. “You have no idea how dangerous the agency is, all right? In fact, you little friend might be in danger ‘cause of me. And as much as I’m tempted to take you up on your offer…”

“You have no idea how powerful I am then.” As expected, the stubborn Jina Han did not waver. “Once we settle this mess and all the infiltrators are dealt with accordingly, I will promise you your safety and security away from them. I can provide for you a new identity if the need arises.”

“... please, Ms. Vanderwood.” V bowed her head very low in front of the flustered brunette. “Yookyung cannot be hurt anymore. Please,” she ended in a shaky whisper.

“Oh my god,” muttered Vanderwood under her breath, gritting her teeth. She looked at her phone and browsed through her messages, and sighed deeply. “The… the minute our bosses get wise on this, I’d have to abandon ship before she gets involved. But for the meantime, I can watch over her… I guess,” she mumbled, looking soft and affected and hating herself for it.

V thanked her profusely and bowed once more, much to Vanderwood’s embarrassment. Later on, they chatted on the messenger app and decided to meet up at Seven’s bunker in a few hours to prepare for their mission to rescue MC and the furball.

Jina turned to Zen and nodded, a new fierce determination in her eyes. She was the leader of the RFA now, and she had things to do.

* * *

 

_“MC… MC…”_

_He found himself in what he thought was a vast, silent emptiness. Except for the voice calling out to him, he heard nothing and saw nothing._

_“Well… you’re not going to see anything until you open your eyes, you dummy. And get your hair off your eyes.”_

_He opened his eyes upon that command. There was nothing but stars and galaxies above him. There was a floor underneath him, which was probably made of darkness. There was somebody beside him, somebody who he’s never seen before, and yet…_

_“... MC?”_

_“That’s right.” The girl smiled at him. She had the same brown hair, the same amber eyes hidden beneath her thick fringe, the same silly grin he makes in front of the camera. The same white sweater, the same blue apron he wore to work. The same mole at the right wrist. It was like looking into a mirror in some ways._

_A disconcerting and weird mirror, but a mirror all the same._

_“Oh my gosh. I just took a wild guess, but… you’re me, aren’t you?” The girl put both hands to her face and made a tired face. “It means… It means that they probably extracted my brain and put it somewhere else, doesn’t it…? This is my dying vision, isn’t it?”_

_MC touched his face in a similar way, just to feel if he was really there, and shook his head. “No, that can’t be. If any, this is my dying vision, isn’t it…? I mean, I drank that thing.”_

_“That thing, you say?”_

_“Yup.”_

_“Elixir, right?”_

_“... hey, yeah!” They both gasped at the same time and fretted in a similar way. And got creeped out when they acted in the same exact way._

_“Stop doing that!”_

_“I will if you do!”_

_This went on for some time. The girl sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, AU me, but I’m not supposed to be here… At least, not yet. I have a huge responsibility over my shoulders, and I really shouldn’t be tripping like this.”_

_“Yeah, same here.” The girl leaned against him, and in turn he leaned against her too. It was comforting, in a way, but within that proximity, he was sure that this girl was also him. Was it weird? It was hard to explain to himself, at least. “I have… I have to wake up again. To make sure that the RFA is safe, Seveny is safe, and Rei doesn’t hurt herself any longer…”_

_“Hey! Me too!” The girl piped up. “Gosh, I miss everyone, especially Seveny… I don’t really understand what’s happening with Ray, but we have to save him, right? That’s the main reason why I agreed to take Elixir in the first place…”_

_“Yeah…”_

_They sighed in unison. The End of the Universe is a pretty silent place. Even if you’re faced with yourself, soon you find less and less things to say._

_Out of nowhere, at the edge of that odd place, a white figure seemed to float in the distance. It came closer and closer, and soon it was clear that it was a luxurious white-furred cat, its tail high up in the air, with a shining bell around its neck._

_“Elliot?” “Elizabeth?” the MCs said at the same time._

_“It’s Elliot this time, MC,” the cat said to the girl beside him. “You won’t understand right now, I suppose?”_

_“Nope!” said the girl unabashedly._

_“It’s fine,” said the cat. He turned to MC with a grin. “Hello, MC. You looked awful when they brought you to Mint Eye. Well, it’s not like I looked any better when they brought me there, too.”_

_It should definitely be odd to see Jina Han’s precious cat talking about strange things, but in this place, it was perfectly acceptable. He sounded as he expected the cat to sound._

_“And you, MC,” the cat turned to the girl beside him. “You’re in the wrong place too. You need to go back where you belong, before you’re lost forever. You always have to avoid the Bad Endings when you can, you know. You won’t always have the option to reset… or do you?”_

_“I… don’t know?” the girl stammered uneasily. “But what should I do, Elly? How do I get back to where Saeyoung and V are?”_

_Who was Saeyoung? MC looked at the two of them oddly. The cat merely chuckled at the question._

_“I guess you can just try this with me.” He raised his chin proudly, revealing the shining bell on his collar. As it turns out, the bell was in the shape of an hourglass._

_The grains of sand at the top were just about gone, but as MC stared at it, it turned slowly upside down, and the moment it did, the universe around them crumbled._

_“Goodbye, Main Character! Work hard for the Good Ending! It all depends on the choices you make now!”_

_The cat seemed to talk to them as if they were one person. The surroundings around MC crumbled, and then the next thing he knew--_

MC was already awake.

He stood up straight from a bed that wasn’t his. He looked around in panic, and found that he was in what looked like a fancy hotel room. The design was French and frilly; out the window, he caught a glimpse of a garden full of flowers, a forest, and clouds, which told him that he was somewhere up in the mountains. A vase full of blue roses stood proudly and ominously on a table a few feet away. He looked down, and saw that instead of his usual work clothes, somebody dressed him up in a black formal suit and tie. He felt the weight of a smart phone in one of his pockets.

The dream that he had faded away with each frantic movement he made. “I… I need to tell the RFA,” he mumbled out loud. The phone was locked when he got to it, and he cursed out loud.

“Language, MC.”

He froze in his place. Turning to his left, he saw a girl with an uncomfortably familiar face smiling at him evilly.

“Rei…”

“Don’t call me by that pathetic marshmallow’s name, toy.” She was not clad in the magenta clothes she wore before, and was instead wearing a dark jacket, a dark skirt, a pair of black thigh-high socks, and boots. A chain hooked to both the top buttons of her jacket jangled noisily as she haughtily moved closer to him.

“Rei, please…”

“Oh my god, shut up. You fucking idiot.” She smacked him at the side of the head with her gloved hand. All the black clothes she wore made her appear paler and thinner, but she emanated with a strong, hungry fury that she left unbridled. “I gave you a clear order, toy. Prove to me that you’re not as defective as you look, and I’ll keep you alive for a while longer.”

He gasped as the sting of pain caught up with him. Still, he willed himself to look into her eyes. “What… what’s going on? Where did you take me?”

“Hmm? What’s that? Toys shouldn’t ask too many questions.” The girl giggled and with a strength unproportionate with her size, grabbed the taller man by the neck. MC tried to keep himself from choking as she glared at him closer. “You should be saying things like, _there’s a snake in my boot!_ Or something simple and stupid like _Mama! Mama!_ Right? Come on, call me __mama,__ won’t you, toy?”

When MC didn’t say anything, the girl clicked her tongue and dropped him to the floor, letting him cough and sputter as air re-entered his lungs. “I thought that it was weird that Saviour didn’t want to give you the full dose of Elixir. If he did, you would be kissing my feet by now. But I’ll have to wait to see what he wants to do with an airhead like you.”

“Sera, that’s enough.”

A different voice came from the doorway. The girl mumbled “Saviour” and bowed her head meekly. MC forced himself to look up and saw a beautiful figure enter the room.

He had golden hair, the colour of the sun, and pale skin. He wore a formal suit, just like MC did, but he looked refined and gentle and put together, nothing like MC was. Behind a dark Venetian mask were a pair of bright green eyes, with pupils so dark and enticing that it seemed to pull him in as he looked up.

He smiled, revealing a perfect row of white teeth. He held his hand out. “Hello, MC. We’ve been waiting for you for some time now. Welcome to my little paradise called Magenta.”

_It’s… It’s you._ MC felt a cold chill as he stared at Ryung’s hand, torn whether he would take it or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vanderwood is one of my fave characters ^_^ In my head, she's super bad-ass as a girl but still a pushover for Seven hehe.  
> I'm sorry if there seems to be a lack of Jina/Zen the past few chapters. I'm workin' on it hehe :P  
> Thank you again for kindly reading my story so far. I hope it isn't so out of control as i sometimes think it is hehe.


	14. I had a weird feeling just now

_707 has entered the chatroom._   
_ZEN has entered the chatroom._   
_Jae-jin Kang has entered the chatroom._   
_Jina Han has entered the chatroom._ _  
_ _V has entered the chatroom._

ZEN: whoa  
ZEN: I’ve never seen the chatroom so full before;;  
Jina Han: we are in a state of emergency, Zen.  
Jae-jin Kang: -sigh-  
Jae-jin Kang: it’s hard to believe that it has come to this  
ZEN: … man…  
ZEN: never thought the chatroom would be used for something like this  
Jae-jin Kang: that is true…  
Jina Han: Updates on everybody please.  
ZEN: right.  
ZEN: V and I are with Driver Kim. We’re on our way to Seyoung’s place  
ZEN: to be fair Jina he’s a rly good driver. We’ve avoided all the traffic so far even tho its rush hour  
Jina Han: of course.  
Jina Han: I entrust nobody else to drive me around.  
707: good thing too.  
707: since ur driving skills kinda suck lol  
ZEN: … so over here too, huh;;  
707: ya. Jumin drives like he’s in the Fast and the Aggravated movies  
707: except he doesn’t look at the mirrors  
707: doesn’t know how to drive in reverse  
707: gets confused on how to turn on the wipers and the lights  
707: sometimes doesn’t know which is right and which is left  
ZEN: omg  
Jina Han: -pissed off-  
Jina Han: this isn’t the time to discuss my driving skills.  
Jae-jin Kang: Seyoung, although it’s good that you seem to be trying to joke around again  
Jae-jin Kang: Let’s get back on topic please.    
707: -OTL-  
707: fine fine.  
707: im readying the RFA doomsday protocol  
ZEN: whats that  
707: u don’t want to know

 __707 has sent 2 attachments:_ _ _  
_ __explosion.jpg_ _ __  
_ _ __dove_in_the_sky.jpg__

ZEN: ;;  
ZEN: do u have another bomb in ur bunker???  
ZEN: how many bombs do u have planted anyway????  
ZEN: there’s one in rika’s apartment too  
ZEN: I mean ryung. Sry  
707: -OTL-  
707: anyways. im waiting for u guys in my house.  
707: also monitoring the hacker’s movements  
707: I’ll brief u all on it once ur here.  
Jae-jin Kang: all right. Thank you, Seyoung.  
Jae-jin Kang: as for me, I am presently with the Intelligence Unit, Ms. Han.  
Jae-jin Kang: We are on standby.

 __Marcus Vanderwood 3_ _ _ _rd_ _ __has entered the chatroom._ _

Marcus Vanderwood 3rd: wth is up with this username  
707: Francesca!!!!  
707: ur here!  
Marcus Vanderwood 3rd: change it  
707: no  
707: you will be Marcus  
707: F O R E V E R  
707: but if u wanna be Francesca Stark  
707: or Tony or Sansa or Arya  
707: I can change that too  
Marcus Vanderwood 3rd: -rage-  
Jae-jin Kang: er… Ms Vanderwood.  
Jae-jin Kang: you can change it by yourself in your profile settings.  
Marcus Vanderwood 3rd: I can?  
V: Ms. Vanderwood…  
V: How is Yookyung?  
Vanderwood: there. Better.  
707: hmph  
Vanderwood: She’s OK. She doesn’t want to log on right now  
Vanderwood: I’ll update her about you guys as well.  
V: all right. Thank you very much  
Jina Han: No suspicious persons?  
Vanderwood: none that I can see.  
Vanderwood: 707’s monitoring the cameras too    
707: yep  
707: just paparazzi but it looks like theyre after jumin n zen  
Jina Han: please refrain from calling me Jumin.    
ZEN: ;; yeah  
ZEN: that makes it weirder  
707: speaking of which  
707: Jina have u seen the news this morning  
Jina Han: … yes.  
ZEN: what news?

 __707 has sent 2 attachments:_ _ _  
_ __ZEN_JinaHan_breakup_scandal.pdf_ _ __  
_ _ __JinaHan_pregnant.pdf__

ZEN: wtf  
ZEN: WTF???????  
Vanderwood: Tsk. It’s when you were speaking in the hallway.  
Vanderwood: I should have weeded out all those paparazzi when I had the chance.  
Jae-jin Kang: -weep-  
Jina Han: it’s nothing but sensationalist drivel.  
707: look at how they arranged the photos tho  
707: looks like u two are arguing  
707: or at least it looks like zen made jina cry  
ZEN: that wasn’t what happened!!!  
ZEN: this is so effing frustrating!!!!  
Jae-jin Kang: Zen…    
ZEN: and where the heck did the pregnant rumor come from  
Jae-jin Kang: it appears that it was conjectured due to the fact that you two are in the hospital.  
ZEN: god. We can’t be in the hospital cos of something else?!    
ZEN: ….  
ZEN: my brain hurts  
ZEN: is this from glam choi again  
707: u know it  
707: but the pregnant one ain’t from her lol  
707: I don’t think itll benefit them if there were pregnant rumors bout jina. Esp if ur the rumored baby daddy  
Jae-jin Kang: Is that so, Seyoung?  
Jae-jin Kang: I had assumed that it’s from their camp as well  
707: -shrug-  
707: u read the report I gave u right?  
707: we have a good inkling of what they rly want from the hans hehe  
707: won’t be good for glam n spencer if anything threatened jina’s succession in c&r  
707: if daddy chairman disowned jina its all over  
707: and echo girls exploding in triptr right now shes going insane bout the pregnancy rumor lol  
ZEN: …  
ZEN: still  
ZEN: jina ur awfully quiet about the issue  
Jina Han: I am more concerned about the outcome of our operations than these baseless rumours about the status of our relationship. Or my uterus.  
Jina Han: besides… let us use this to our advantage.  
Jina Han: you will be absent indefinitely, Zen  
Jina Han: if the general public believes in it, then perhaps hiding from the limelight will be understandable.  
ZEN: still…  
ZEN: what about the Chairman?  
Jina Han: I will neither confirm nor deny it.  
Jina Han: so you must hurry back so we can manage this  
Jina Han: … together.  
707: -heart eyes-  
707: -heart eyes-  
707: -heart eyes-  
707: it’s so sweet im getting ants  
Vanderwood: It’s probably all the energy drinks you’re taking, you brat.  
ZEN: shut up u guys  
V: Hyun is blushing.  
ZEN: -angry-  
ZEN: you come out of lurker mode to say that, V?!  
Jae-jin Kang: -sweatdrop-  
Jina Han: I cannot be seen to be directly involved in this mission, however  
Jina Han: Since I am under close scrutiny at the moment.  
Jina Han: I shall rely on everyone’s updates. Especially you, Assistant Kang.  
Jae-jin Kang: yes, Ms. Han.  
ZEN: -OTL-  
ZEN: anyways, Seyoung, I can see ur gate from the window.  
ZEN: let us in  
707: … about that  
Vanderwood: …  
Vanderwood: good luck.  
ZEN: … what…?

__707 has left the chatroom._ _

V: we should leave too, Zen.  
ZEN: … why do you have a dictionary, V?  
ZEN: is that arabic?!

 __V has left the chatroom._ _ __  
_ _ __ZEN has left the chatroom._ _

Vanderwood: The nurse is here.  
Vanderwood: I have to make sure she does her job right;;  
Vanderwood: I’ll update you guys about Yookyung Kim.  
Jae-jin Kang: Thank you, Ms. Vanderwood.

__Vanderwood has left the chatroom._ _

Jina Han: Assistant Kang. Send me texts via the messenger app about the unit’s progress.  
Jae-jin Kang: Understood.  
Jae-jin Kang: As for your daily schedule, Ms. Han, I have updated your calendar. The Board of Directors moved their meeting to this afternoon.  
Jina Han: Do not concern yourself with my schedule, Assistant Kang. I would like you to focus your energies with the unit instead.  
Jina Han: Our priority is to rescue MC and Elliot 3rd.  
Jina Han: MC, if you can read this  
Jina Han: Stay strong.  
Jina Han: We have disclosed only what is necessary in this chatroom since our security is compromised.  
Jina Han: … however, know that we are expending all resources to rescue you.  
Jina Han: As for your captors… we pray that they soon see the error of their ways.  
Jae-jin Kang: Ms Han…  
Jina Han: Despite her demeanor in the chatroom just now, 707, or Seyoung, is putting the greatest effort in finding you.  
Jina Han: Do not give in to despair.  
Jae-jin Kang: That’s right, MC.  
Jae-jin Kang: Please hold on.  
Jae-jin Kang: I have faith that we will be able to rescue everybody who needs to be saved.  
Jina Han: That’s all we have to say for now.  
Jina Han: well then.

 __Jina Han has left the chatroom._ _ __  
_ _ __Jae-jin Kang has left the chatroom._ _

__Unknown has entered the chatroom._ _

Unknown: … idiots  
Unknown: we’re the ones doing the saving here  
Unknown: … will there anything be left for you to save, Seyoung? V?  
Unknown: ;)

_Unknown has left the chatroom._   
_This chatroom does not exist._

* * *

 

 _ _“__ V, wait up!” Zen had barely gotten off the C&R provided limousine, but V was already in front of the giant gate, flipping through her strange dictionary.

 _ _Moreover, does Seven really live here?!__ Zen’s never been to Seven’s house in the other universe. The giant gate that loomed in front of them reminded him of the documentaries of the giant penitentiaries in the US. Or that show __Doomsday Preppers.__ Crazy. Maybe there really was a bomb hidden somewhere there.

V was already having a conversation with a robotic voice and a red-eyed camera at the fortress. “Please state the capital of Saudi Arabia,” it commanded.

“Riyadh,” V answered.

“Please translate the following sentence into Arabic: __my hovercraft is full of eels.__ ”

“ _ _ḥawwāmtī mumtil'ah bi'anqalaysūn__ _ _.__ ”

“Please translate the following--”

 _ _“__ How much longer is this gonna take?!” Zen snapped, despite being deeply impressed with V’s unexpected linguistic skills. “And how many times have you done this, V? Why are you just passively accepting this??”

“ _ _lugha wāhidah lā takfī__ _ _.__ It’s not so bad. Seyoung needs these security measures due to many factors… mostly due to the nature of her work. Of course, I can’t say for sure, since her agency work and many other factors are strictly confidential,” answered the mint-haired woman matter-of-factly. “It’s all right. It won’t take us too long.”

“Still…” Zen trailed off. At the mention of the Agency, he suddenly imagined Seyoung and Vanderwood in tight bodysuits, armed with assault rifles, doing somersaults around secret vaults with laser-detectors and stealing state secrets and destroying governments in some obscure part of the world. Like in the __Mission: Unlikely To Have Really Happened__ movie franchise. Would they have to resort to measures like that to save MC and that furball from Mint-Eye? Would he and V and Seyoung have to wear tight bodysuits and do stunts like that too?

Automatically, his brain moved on to imagine the male Seven… also in a tight women’s bodysuit in all his cosplay glory. He tried to shake off that weird image from his head. Why would you do that, Zen’s brain?

Before long, the weird entrance quiz puzzle thingy finally stopped asking V questions. A tiny screen popped up, showing a familiar red-head’s face peering at the two of them. “ _ _Unnie! Oppa!__ You made it. Your Arabic’s really flawless, V!”

“Thank you, Seyoung,” replied V softly. “You do not have to worry. Driver Kim went ahead. There’s nobody else around.”

Seyoung nodded. “All right. I’m letting you two in.”

The heavy gate groaned and whooshed as it opened only wide enough for the two of them to enter one after the other. This led them into a set of stairs going downwards for a moderate distance, and then a pure white hallway, and then another set of stairs, and then another pure white hallway. Just when Zen started getting sick of blank hallways, they reached an underwhelmingly plain steel door, which led to an overwhelming garage with all of Seyoung’s proud baby cars, as she would call them.

Zen’s jaw dropped as he stared at all of the shiny, beautiful, undoubtedly expensive automobiles. Seyoung was already waiting for them there, clad in her familiar black hoodie and jorts. She had lots of bags piled up haphazardly next to her as she fiddled with her laptop on the floor, no doubt still monitoring for the hacker’s attacks. “Hi,” she said in a daze.

“... Seyoung, you don’t look well,” V said, crouching down to look her in the eye.

“I’m good, __unnie.__ I had five shots of bulletproof coffee and two SEVENSTARS and I don’t know how many PhD peppers,” she said tensely.

“... Oi, are you really going to be okay? You look like you’re about to explode!” From where he stood, Zen noted how pale and tremulous she was. If she really drank that much caffeine, shouldn’t her heart be exploding by now?!

“I’m okay! I have to do this,” said the young redhead, looking up at him with candid despair, her eyes pleading with him not to hold her back any longer. “ _ _Oppa,__ it’s now or never, right? You and me and V. Even Elly thinks that we are the only ones who could rescue Sera…”

V didn’t look any stronger too. So it’ll be a sleep-deprived hacker, a half-blind woman, and a drop-dead gorgeous but misplaced Adonis who are going to carry out this very dangerous search and rescue mission.

Are they really going to be okay? That furball better be right about this. “Anyway, we should probably go over our plans again,” said Zen, trying to ignore the new, annoying lump in his throat.

“Right, right. Good thing I made a Powerpoint outta this.” Seven stretched her arms over her head and cracked her fingers. “So our leader Jina Han divided the RFA into three groups. We’re at the front lines as the Infiltration Team, which is responsible for physically extracting and rescuing MC and Elly and Sera.”

In here, she showed a wordless slide of MC’s profile picture, the enhanced picture of the hacker as captured in the background of Zen’s selfie, and Elliot 3rd being harassed by her. Despite the serious tone of the agent’s voice, there were hearts in the background, and Zen had to wonder how delirious she might have been due to lack of sleep.  
  
”How are we getting to Mint Eye?” asked Zen, to which Seven pointed quickly to a monstrosity of a van that Zen didn’t notice before for some odd reason. With a giant picture of an anime girl painted at the sides and on its hood, it was obviously out of place from the rest of the luxury sports cars in the garage.

“What the hell is this.”

“We have to be inconspicuous when we drive,” explained Seyoung, still with her serious mode on. “My babies are beautiful and anyone would see us if we went to the countryside in one of them.”

“And an anime girl is better?! I mean the execution is good, I guess, but…”

“It’s so cringey that people will automatically look away. I thought you’d like it, since the girl kinda looks like Jina, doesn’t she?” She raised both of her eyebrows suggestively, making Zen scowl all the more. “Anyway, better get used to it, __oppa,__ since you’re driving us. (I sure as heck ain’t driving that thing.)”

Of course he did. With her vision, it would be impossible for V to drive. And while Seyoung is capable, Zen wouldn’t allow her to drive when she could fall asleep at the wheel at any moment. Speaking of which… “V, how were you able to go to Magenta before, by yourself?”

“One way or another, I was able to tail one of the believers up to the hideout. After that I just commuted by train to Busan, and then contacted one of my photographer friends to drive me up to a certain point in the mountains,” replied V thoughtfully. “And then it’s a matter of hiking some distance from that jump-off point…”

“How far is the hike?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s about two to three hours on foot…”

Zen’s jaw dropped. “You’ve been doing that by yourself?? All this time?”

V nodded solemnly, as if it weren’t a big deal for a visually impaired woman to secretly go to a secret castle in the middle of the mountains by foot. “I’m used to it… the hike isn’t the hardest part about going there, it’s infiltrating Magenta itself. Only baptized believers are allowed inside the complex…”

“Yeah. I looked at the ID card you gave me, Unnie,” said Seyoung, tilting it between two fingers. “If I’m not mistaken, this also serves as a keycard to parts of the building. I couldn’t make copies of it with the limited time we have. The technology that made this is pretty advanced, so we got our work cut out for us. It’s amazing that you got one, though. How were you able to do it, Unnie?”

V blushed slightly at this. “O-oh. Um, I had to… take it from one of them,” she said quietly.

“... how?”

She clutched her cane defensively and looked away, the pink rising up her cheeks in embarrassment. “Please don’t ask. Let’s just say that desperate times call for desperate measures.”

The image of the gentle woman __krav-maga-__ ing her way through Magenta went in the other two’s brains. A chill simultaneously went up Zen’s and Seyoung’s spines. V cleared her throat to recover. “I didn’t murder anyone or anything like that, so please do not worry. Let’s continue with the mission briefing.”

“... okay,” Seyoung cleared her throat as well before continuing. The next slide read, ‘costumes,’ showing photos of V from different angles wearing the Believer garb. “Once we get there, the three of us will have to disguise ourselves as believers. Jae-jin got us really nice replicas of the robes--” the girl patted one of the bags next to her--”And oppa has our wigs.”

Zen nodded. He decided to bring three black wigs from __Coconuts!__ The musical. He wondered briefly how V was able to manage with her very distinctive, natural mint-coloured hair, but decided against asking about it any further.

“... and then V will act as our guide. We won’t be working with a blueprint so we gotta be careful how to approach this.” The last slide read, __Infiltration,__ but there was just a huge question mark in it. Seyoung twirled the bright orange cord of her headset thoughtfully as she said this. “Jae-jin and the Intelligence Unit will be monitoring our movements from afar and will have back-up on standby in case we need it. But according to V, communications will be difficult…”

V nodded. “We have to find a different method to communicate with them, Seyoung.”

“We’ll figure it out, __unnie,__ don’t worry,” said the young hacker. “Jina Han is arranging things quietly in the background for the time that we rescue them… we will need a lot of help.”

“All right.” Zen’s heart throbbed in his chest, a rush of adrenaline flowing through his veins. He looked the two women in front of him, both of them sullen and exhausted beyond belief, and he knew it was up to him to take care of everyone.

They loaded all the things they thought they needed in the back of the Anime Girl truck, and within the next few minutes, sped off into the unknown.

* * *

 

“Hey, Jina~”

She recognized the bothersome, grating voice calling out to her, but did not bother to look up from the paperwork in front of her.

“Hey. Hey. Heyyyyy~”

She closed her eyes, willed herself some self-control, and looked up. That rose-haired guy, Spudson, was waving a hand in front of her face. She said his name in the deadest voice she could muster.

“It’s Spencer,” he said, the fake grin not disappearing from his face. As expected, he was covered from head to toe with expensive designer outfits. Jina passively thought that Elliot 3rd wore Borborry accessories better than he did, but stopped as the pang of loss entered into her heart once more.

“Hm,” she said, before looking down on the business plans she had to countersign.

The man awkwardly stood there in silence before clearing his throat. “You know, it’s so much easier to find you without that plain guy blocking my way… he looked like the type to never take the day off, but lucky me that he decided to take one on the day that I decided to take you out for lunch~! And before you say anything,” he said, raising a finger to her face when she looked up sharply to contradict him, “I asked your daddy to cut you some slack from the power lunch you were supposed to have with the rest of the executives today. He thinks you could use a break too, ya know?”

“A break? I doubt it. As a director, I cannot be absent from that meeting,” she said.

Spudson shrugged. “He knows what you’re going through, Jina. I mean… I dunno if you talked to him about those rumours going around and all…”

Jina tilted her head to one side and stared him down. He was bad at pretending not to be involved in them. “They’re tasteless rumours, nothing more. I feel nothing about them.”

The guy chuckled through gritted teeth. “W-well… are they true, though? Those pictures of you with that __musical actor__  were very…”

She stood up rapidly, with the apparent intentions of slapping the living daylights out of his face. Spudson yelped and jumped backward, a look of real fear in his eyes. Jina took a deep breath and counted up to ten in her head.

“Do not.”

“Do not… what…?”

In the next moment, a secretary softly knocked at the door and gasped in shock, dropping papers on the floor. “D-director Han… are you all right?”

In surprise, the rose-haired man stepped aside as Jina allowed the girl to fuss over her. “Oh my, you’re pale. Shall I take you to the bathroom? Shall I get you a glass of water? Do you need to throw up?”

“... I am fine.”

“You need to take it easy, Director. Dr. Lim instructed us to watch out for you regarding ‘that,’ too.”

“Of course.” The girl picked up the papers, and Jina, who clutched her abdomen discreetly, straightened up her posture once more. “I will call for you when I need you. Thank you.”

The girl bowed, barely paying attention to Spencer, who was himself looking pale. “That…”

Jina frowned at him. “ _ _That__ is confidential,” she said curtly.

If she weren’t so stressed about the infiltration mission, she would have enjoyed how the man’s facial expressions shifted from one mood to another. She could almost hear his thoughts: __I didn’t sign up for this. No way, it’s real? I need to think of a way around this.__

After what seemed like an eternity, Spencer cleared his throat and gave a smile that was about to crumble. “S-still, Jina, my offer still stands. I mean, I’ve worked so hard talking to your daddy about getting you to this new French restaurant in town… maybe I can convince you to let me in on that… __confidential__ thing, eh?”

Jina smirked. “You are very persistent, aren’t you, Spudson? It makes me wonder __why.”__

 _ _“__ It’s Spencer,” he said, the crumbly smile never leaving his plastic-surgeried mouth. This fell rapidly when to his surprise, the indomitable Jina Han nodded her head. “You’re… saying __yes__ to me, Jina?”

“That’s what nodding means in most cultures, doesn’t it?”

“Oh… Oh my. This one is for the record books. I finally got through to you!” The cocky smile was back on his face. __See, all girls, even the snootiest ones, eventually give in to me,__ his facial expression said. “Well, come on, we’re wasting daylight as it is--”

“I have a condition for going with you, Spudson.”

“It’s Spencer. But what is it? Anything,” he said gleefully.

An uncharacteristically devious smile made its way to Jina’s face. “I’m driving.”

* * *

 

Somewhere in the countryside, Zen felt a chill going up and down his spine, as if something bad was going to happen.

“Anything wrong, Zen?” a voice from one of Seyoung’s laptops asked.

He shifted his gaze briefly from his view of the countryside road behind the wheel and looked at the monitor, where the soft brown eyes of Jae-jin Kang appraised him in worry. Behind him, in a nondescript dark room, were the rest of the Intelligence Unit, their eyes fixed on their screens, watching their every move.

“I had a weird feeling just now,” said Zen.

“Is that so? Are you feeling odd in any way? Perhaps you should stop driving a while--”

“Relax, Jaehee,” grumbled Seyoung, who was sitting crossed-legged in the middle of a set of laptops. Judging from the light and rapid typing noises from her station, she was probably doing hackery stuff. “The truck’s on autopilot. Zen’s not really driving, he’s only pretending just in case a cop sees us.”

“Oh. There is such a technology now, I see.” Jae-jin sighed in relief. “Why, though? And please refrain from calling me Jaehee.”

“It’s the safest way… __Unnie__ wouldn’t let me drive, and I’m not gonna let Zen drive, not while he recently had those drugs and stuff in his body. I don’t know if we might see delayed effects.”

“I see.” Jae-jin nodded. “Very clever. I do wish Ms. Han had that sort of technology at her disposal.”

Somewhere in his mind, the image of Jina Han smiling deviously made its way into his consciousness. “Say, Jae-jin, out of curiosity, what’s Trust Fund doing right now?”

“She has a meeting with the rest of the board of directors in a few minutes. As far as I know, there are no disruptions to her schedule so far. Why do you ask, Zen?”

The nagging voice of Elliot 3rd rang in his head. __Protect Jina Han at all costs.__ “Can you check up on her right now?”

He saw the shit-eating grin on Seyoung’s face grow and grow, and next to her, V had a look of concern. “What is it, Hyun? Is this your premonition acting up again?”

“I… I don’t know. Maybe?” Something was itching in his brain. He was far, far away from her, but somehow, a warm feeling of rage in his chest, and a hint of nausea was manifesting itself at the back of his throat. “Jae-jin, just call her please? I mean, if it’s nothing, you can give her an update on what we’re doing.”

“All right. Understood.” The ever-efficient assistant had one ear to his smart phone within the next second. When it was apparent that his boss didn’t answer her phone, he tried again, calling a different person this time. “This is Assistant Kang. About the director…”

V stumbled into the passenger seat and looked at Zen in worry. “Do you think Jina is all right, Zen? Does she need our help?”

“Wait, what are you saying, V? We can’t go back now!” protested Seyoung, only momentarily taking her eyes off the screens before yelping and going back to typing rapidly into her laptop.

“No… we don’t have to go back. I mean, it could be nothing. It’s weird though, I feel like Jina is…”

That feeling of tightness in his chest again.

“Is…”

In the road in front of him, a steaming hunk of metal and flames. A bloody figure, long hair falling over the shoulders, crawling out of the heap, body covered in soot and oil and dirt, croaking for help…

He hit the brakes abruptly, overriding the autopilot programme. V and Seyoung screamed in fear, but only gasped out loud in relief when they saw that everyone was okay.

“ _ _Oppa,__ what the heck? Are you trying to kill us?!”

“Can’t you see that? Come on, we have to help!”

“See what? I don’t see anything…” said V meekly.

Zen stopped fumbling with his seatbelt and looked at the stretch of road in front of him, which was inexplicably empty. No fire, no car crash, no bloodied figure crawling out of the mess. He rubbed his eyes multiple times, looked at the side mirrors, and scratched his head.

“But… there was a car crash,” he mumbled, just in time for Jae-jin to interrupt his thoughts.

“This is bad,” he said. “Ms. Han is __driving.”__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... um sorry that it took so long. So many good and bad things happened in my life, and I really need to buckle down and focus on studying for the next couple of months. I was able to finish the pending chapter just now because I've hit a brick wall in studying lol. I know the plot points are still swimming somewhere in my memory but for now I really have to focus on my career~  
>  I am sorry, seems that I have a 14 chapter curse when it comes to writing. But I shall try my best to finish this by hook or by crook. It might take a million years tho hahahahaha -dies-  
> Thank you so much if you're still reading this. Again, apologies.


	15. How lucky you are to be alive right now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: mentions of abuse. Saeran being Saeran, except she's a girl. ~wheeze~

_Unknown has entered the chatroom._ _  
_ _MC has entered the chatroom._

Unknown: :)  
Unknown: hello, Hero MC.  
Unknown: so? What do you think of the RFA chatroom now?  
Unknown: I must say I like this design better, don’t you think?  
Unknown: …  
Unknown: ****why so silent, good monsieur?**** **** **  
**Unknown: come on, speak the fuck up.  
Unknown: good toys are supposed to do as they’re told  
Unknown: …  
Unknown: is this how you treat young girls who just want a chat?  
Unknown: well, whatever  
Unknown: I can see you through the cameras, you know  
Unknown: I know that you’re not too doped up from drinking Elixir that you can’t send a fucking reply to me you jerkwad  
Unknown: the dose I’ve been giving you isn’t high  
Unknown: and that little simpering marshmallow did sickening modifications to your treatments  
Unknown: fuck, it’s so embarrassing how that stupid bitch is so delusional when it comes to you  
Unknown: good thing that she’s never coming back no matter what ^_^  
MC: Rei  
Unknown: ****HahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH**** **** **  
**Unknown: aren’t you listening, you broken piece of shit  
Unknown: that little airhead doesn’t exist  
Unknown: what? You think by saying her name I’d magically just switch over to be her and you can run off and have ice cream with her in your cute little shop?  
Unknown: she’s a stupid little try-hard who couldn’t do anything by herself  
Unknown: if it weren’t for her, things would have been simpler  
Unknown: it’s too bad she’s too much of a stupid bitch to actually be worth something  
MC: Rei--or, Unknown  
MC: stop talking about yourself like that  
Unknown: fuck are you listening to me?  
Unknown: I’d stop saying stupid shit if I were you  
Unknown: is your brain still working?  
Unknown: or are you gonna blame this on Elixir?  
MC: …  
Unknown: I guess this just means  
Unknown: ****we gotta give you more of it <3 **********  
**Unknown: until you can forget about that airhead and that group of airheads you call the RFA…  
Unknown: I’m going to drug you until you forget even your own name **** **  
**Unknown: and then you’ll be my perfect  
Unknown: drooling  
Unknown: brainless  
Unknown: happy  
Unknown: little toy  
Unknown: oh the things I’m going to make you do  
Unknown: this’ll be fun  
Unknown: ^_^  
Unknown: until then  
Unknown: stay in your room  
Unknown: try not to starve too much  
Unknown: I know it’s been close to 24 hours now, but  
Unknown: this’ll work better on an empty stomach  
Unknown: see you in two hours  
Unknown: my Hero MC  <3

_Unknown has left the chatroom._ _  
_ _This chatroom does not exist._

 

* * *

  
Contrary to popular belief, Jina Han, the youngest, most talented, and only female director of C&R, only got to where she was after proving her worth to her father for a countless number of times over and over.

Sure, her privilege was out there on display for everyone to see. She wouldn’t have started working in C&R at age 15 otherwise, and to have finished high school and university while being able to continue work. Perhaps if she weren’t her father’s only daughter, the highest position that she could aspire to have as a woman would be Chief Assistant Kang’s present position.

But she was a Han, and she was one of the brightest and most determined ones at that. She had put a number of weak-willed, entitled man-children in their places. Even enough for her father to consider her as first-in-line as CEO, over his previous favourite executives, all of them rich and powerful men whom he had tried to arrange a marriage with her the years past. It was a relief to her to see that after years of rejecting these leeches who called themselves men, and after years of her own hard work, he had stopped that arranged marriage foolishness and instead chose to look at her merits outside the context of obtaining a powerful husband who could succeed him.

So just imagine-- _just imagine!--_ the indignation she has to suffer through because of the pathetic, rose-haired man who had the audacity to walk beside her in the C&R lobby. It was an absolute travesty that she had avoided marriage with this man was to get a drugged Zen to play along. And just when things are getting more complicated with the RFA too…

Absently, she touched the metal band on her ring finger. No, she couldn’t think about them now or the million possible bad outcomes that could happen. Being a good leader called for that much faith in them.

That guy Spudson had insisted that he needed to grab something he left at the reception area first before they left for the car, but she knew that it was all a ruse so that the paparazzi would have access to the view of them together. True enough, amidst the stunned whispers of the gossiping C&R employees, not-so-subtle shutterclick after shutterclick reached her ears, all while the leech beside her tried to put one arm around her.

She did _not_ reject this, though. He was close enough for her to smell his expensive perfume, and it had the anticipated effect of making her want to roll her eyes to oblivion.

Finally, the guy was finished with his business with the receptionist. The package he retrieved was small, about the size of a ring-box, and he made a show of hiding it from her field of vision before hiding it in his suit-pocket. “Okay, Jina. I’m ready when you are. Shall we go to the garage? Are we taking the Oddi or the Penz? The Rolls Royals? Or the Borsche? Your daddy told me you could borrow any of his cars too, if you like.”

“Not necessary. Our car is waiting outside.”

She had instructed Driver Kim to bring the shiny, silver Gamborghini that her father bought during the tumultuous years of his midlife crisis. Seeing it roll up the driveway, she could almost hear the guy and the paparazzi wipe their lips free of drool. She smirked and led the way, making the annoyance behind her stumble in his step.

She walked up to Driver Kim, who handed her the keys. His face was pale, and the way he tried to keep a straight face was admirable. “Director Han, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“I always do,” she quipped. “Just to be clear, only you and I know about this.”

She understood Driver Kim’s apprehensions very clearly. After all, he was the one who taught her how to drive all those years ago, before the Chairman told him to stop because the occupational hazard was too hazardous. “Yes ma’am. The chairman and Assistant Kang are none the wiser. As planned, I will be right behind you.”

“Very good. Driver Kim, you are absolutely indispensable.”

The director made her way to the driver’s seat and saw that her… guest was already gaping at every little thing he found in the interiors. He was smiling as if he won the lottery. “Damn, Jina. There’s only ten of this make in the entire world! I wish we were at the countryside just so we could see how fast we could go on this baby.”

Jina leaned back, adjusted the car seat, and fastened her seat belt. “Oh, this car is able to do that and more.”

“Really, baby? Are you going to show me?”

She adjusted the rear view mirror and saw that Driver Kim was behind her in a different car, as promised. The shutterclicks were bolder now. Lights flashed indiscriminately from all over.

“... as you wish.”

Before Spudson could even blink, the sports car zoomed out of the driveway, making a number of paparazzo jump out of the way. Within the next blink they were already 120 km/h in the wrong lane. There weren’t a lot of cars or pedestrians strewn about (as predicted), so apart from Spudson’s, only a few bloodcurdling screams accompanied her leisurely morning drive.

“OH MY GOD JINA PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SLOW DOWN--”

Jina didn’t bother looking at her passenger, and instead focused on the road in front of her. When was the last time she drove again? It was probably in high school, and after that drive, Driver Kim prostated himself in front of the Chairman and begged to quit his job if it meant teaching her for another day.

It was good that she had these areas within the C&R business complex closed--if there were any accidents due to her liberal driving, the damages would be manageable. The same cannot be said of the rose-haired man beside her, who was turning progressively green by the second.

“JINA HAN! PLEASE! STOP DRIFTING! I’M GETTING CARSICK!”

Oh, so that’s what this movement was called. Whatever it was, it was exhilarating, and Jina felt that she could do this all day, or at least until the silver hunk of metal would give up. With an unnerving calm, she said, “I don’t feel like stopping, Spudson… or should I say, Spencer Choi.”

“Wha--”

The tires screeched as they approached another curve. A row of manicured bushes were dangerously close on the passenger side, and whatever the man was about to say was overtaken by his screams. Another stretch of empty road was in front of them, giving him time to breathe, and Jina was able to speak again.

“What I do feel like, Mr. Choi, is talking,” she said, slowing down very, very slightly, giving him just a shred of mercy. “Or wait, is that not your name?”

“Wh-what do you mean? I’m j-j-just Sp-Spencer, you know,” he said, swallowing hard. Jina sped up again, and his white knuckles turned even whiter as he gripped his armrest.

“Lying isn’t allowed in this car, Spudson,” she said coldly. As they approached another curve, she sped up, causing her to lose one side mirror to a hapless tree which just happened to be in the way. The man yelped. “And you know I’m not lying if I say that I’m not really very good at driving.”

“Th-then why would you--aren’t you pregnant with his--”

Jina screeched to a halt, making his head bob dangerously close to the dashboard. Before he could breathe, they were driving _very, very quickly_ in reverse. Jina saw Driver Kim skillfully avoid them. Just barely. She really wasn’t good at driving in reverse.

“I could handle it.” Her lack of denial made her enjoy the new shade of emerald he was sporting on his face. “More importantly, I’m the one asking questions here… _baby,_ ” she said mockingly. “So, am I wrong? You aren’t Spencer Choi, the only biological brother of the actress, Glam Choi, soon to be Glam Han?”

“J-j-jina, we’re going to run into the Slambucks, please--”

“I’ll slam into any coffee shop I like until you start talking, Mr. Choi.”

They were only a few meters away when Spencer screamed, “Y-yes! That’s me, that’s me, please stop!”

Jina smirked, stopped, and let him catch his breath. But just as colour was starting to seep into his redone cheeks, she switched gears and stepped on the gas again.

“Very good, Mr. Choi. That wasn’t so hard, wasn’t it?” smirked Jina. “But we aren’t done yet.”

“Oh my god--”

“So let me ask you a little bit more about yourself, Mr. Choi, since I’m just… itching to know more about you.” They ran over a sign that she must have bumped into sometime ago. Now she was bringing him to the eco-park within the complex, which she had also ordered closed. “Can you tell me a little bit about a small company called ‘Sugar Round’?”

Now Spencer was turning purple, and she knew it wasn’t because of the car ride.

“I might be mistaken, Mr. Choi, so correct me if I’m wrong,” she began, as she unsteadily swerved from one side to the other, barely avoiding the shrubberies, “it’s just a little something I read in a report I read somewhere. See, a man with the same, distinct name as yours owned the business… it’s alarming how quickly it went under. Even more alarming are the debts the company accumulated. And most alarming--”

“S-stop, Ms. Han--”

“--are the _rumors,_ Mr. Choi. You know how it is, people just talk without checking facts. And they say that the Spencer Choi who owned the business spent whatever little capital was left for his own lifestyle needs, and just… abandoned it, leaving the debt to his partners. And that recently, these partners caught up to him and are now demanding payback. And the only way out he and his scheming sister could think of was to marry into the Han family… get _them_ to pay all his debts and plastic surgeries and future spendings… heck, maybe even _inherit_ the company while he’s at it, and enjoy the life of luxury for as long as he could ever possibly want--”

“Director Han, please--”

“So are you the same Spencer Choi? I think my driving skills are getting worse…”

He took a deep breath and pleaded, “Y-yes, that’s me, everything you said was correct, it’s me! I--I only did what Glam- _noona_ wanted me to do!!! I’m… I’m sorry!!! Director Han, I’m sorry!!!”

“Your apologies and confession are duly noted,” said Jina Han. She didn’t slow down. “But what’s important to me is the plan of action you’re going to take after our little trip.”

“I’ll--I’ll call it off! I’ll tell her to b-b-back off! Whatever you want!”

“What else?”

“I’ll s-stop all the tabloids!”

“And…?”

“I’ll… I’ll leave you and your fiance alone!”he sobbed. “I’ll even attend the wedding if you want! And the baby shower too!” Jina sped up even more. “Or not! Whatever you want! Please Director Han!”

She smiled-- _if,_ and that was a big if--they all make it out of the RFA crisis alive and well, and they were cornered enough to proceed to the wedding, she wouldn’t want this eyesore to sully the ceremony. All she needed to be there was a priest to officiate the ceremony, her father to walk her down the aisle, Assistant Kang to arrange everything as her wedding planner, V to be her maid-of-honor, Elliot 3rd to be the ringbearer, Yookyung, Seyoung and MC to witness the event, and…

An image of Zen, in a church, in a suit, smiling at her from the other end of the aisle, flashed in her thoughts very, very briefly. In the shadows of the church, a tall man with hair like sunshine, smiling at her, welcoming her home…

 _Wait, what am I thinking about at this time?_ She supposed it only took a few seconds to dream up that preposterous image in her head, but a few seconds was too much. This was barely the time to begin the inefficient habit of daydreaming, if that truly was a daydream. Besides, there were many other things that she had to do…

She snapped her head to the side and saw the results of her handiwork. Tears were at the corners of his eyes, now fully devoid of the pomp that was there less than an hour ago. Said eyes had the sense to look at the road in front of them, which was dissipating by the second. “The cliff--the cliff!!!”

Oh. There was a cliff in this ridiculously large eco park, wasn’t there? Jina stepped on the brakes, marvelling at how quickly they arrived at a quick stop. She stepped down and saw that they were about 3 inches from the edge of the cliff, which dropped a good ten meters or so. She made her way to Spencer Choi, who had stepped out of the car, collapsed on the ground, threw up, and wept to the heavens. Driver Kim screeched to a halt behind them.

“Director Han!” the driver called out to her, half-jogging to stand by her side. “You’re… not hurt,” he said, in awe of the miracle standing in front of him.

She nodded curtly and glanced at Spencer Choi, who remained on the ground. “He is. Don’t worry, nothing too physical. I have the recording from inside of the car to prove it.” At this, Spencer flinched, but didn’t say anything. “But call somebody and bring him see a physician, just in case. I will take care of the professional fees.”

“Understood, Director.” Driver Kim sighed in relief at the whole thing, and made a soft _ah_ sound as he remembered something. “Assistant Kang has been calling me. I couldn’t talk to him properly while I was watching you, but I think you ought to talk to him… he was on the verge of tears a while ago.”

Without another word, Jina Han whipped out her cell phone and saw that she had fifteen missed calls from Assistant Kang and another thirteen missed calls from V. She called the assistant, and within the first ring, she heard his panicked voice through the phone. “Ms. Han! You’re all right!”

“Of course I am. There’s no reason I wouldn’t be,” she answered bluntly.

“B-but… Driver Kim said that you--you drove, and,” began the frazzled assistant. In the background, she heard other familiar voices, one of them sighing in relief, one of them guffawing about the miracle of Jumin Han ( _again with that name!_ ) being the new Drift Queen, and another one simultaneously cursing and thanking the heavens that Trust Fund didn’t kill herself.

“... Assistant Kang… you _are_ where you are supposed to be, correct? I commanded you to go on _holiday_ ,” she said meaningfully, side-eyeing Spencer Choi and Driver Kim, who were listening to her conversation, as predicted.

“Yes, Ms. Han,” answered Assistant Kang. “I am with the Intelligence Group, monitoring the Infiltration Group. They are close to the jump-off point as we speak.”

Softly, in the background, she heard the muffled voice of Zen yelling _let me talk to that damn CEO-in-line, Jae-jin, l’ll give her a piece of my mind so help me,_ and she couldn’t stop the upturn of her lips as she heard it.

“I see. Well, no worries, I’ll have to call my beloved fiance later and tell him that our baby is safe and sound,” she said, her voice a little louder than her usual monotone. Spencer turned pale once more. “Enjoy the mountains, Assistant Kang.”

“Yes, Ms. Han.” She hung up the next moment and, for the first time, had a good look at her father’s Gamborghini, which definitely looked different than it had this morning. As if to accentuate all that it went through, the bumper fell off with a loud thud.

“So… Mr. Choi,” she said, turning to the weeping businessman on the floor. “Seems like we both have a lot to explain to the Chairman. Won’t you accompany me?”

 

* * *

 

They told him that he needed to take the medication every six hours. The first few times, he had the strength to hit them where he was sure it would hurt--he was in his high school’s Tae Kwon Do team, after all, and he was in a gang shortly after he dropped out--but each kick and punch and bite only made them step back a little bit and come back to him stronger and more relentless than ever.

They might be on some very strong painkillers, he thought, and no amount of struggle stopped them from making him chug down his ‘treatment’. After that, they’d leave him coughing and sputtering, and the floor would move from under his feet, and the lights above would start to dance. All the sounds in the air would tickle the skin of his arms and legs and neck. His body would be hot and cold at the same time, and his clothes would be soaked with his sweat. And he’d feel his arms turn to jello.

And then… he’d be alone, looking passively at stars and galaxies and vast emptiness. Long ago, there was somebody there beside him, but that entity, that piece of himself was gone. Perhaps it’s a part of him that was snuffed out by whatever god or game developer was out there. Perhaps it never even existed.

It was so unbearably desolate, that he promised himself that anything other than that would be paradise--he’ll do anything, anything to get away, just take him somewhere else, anywhere else but that emptiness--

When he came to, he felt like a hundred years has passed. How long has he been in this place? Has it really been just six hours since the last time? The girl who looked like _her_ was somehow already in his room, her legs crossed, and her face amused.

Wait… who was she again? Who did she look like? There was a number, a number he held dearly in his heart, but he was so out of it that he forgot how to count.

The first sound that came to his ears after those centuries of isolation came like a miracle to him. “How are you feeling, Main Character?”

The sound of her voice sent waves of pain in his head--no matter, he was grateful to feel _anything_ else at this point. “M-Main… Character…?” he began.

“Oh, look at you, drooling like a newborn baby. How cute.” She giggled behind her hand, not bothering to hide the devious look in her eyes. “Well, I did tell you that I won’t stop giving you the Elixir until you forgot your own name… you might have been to nothingness and back, with the doses that I’ve been giving you. It’s a _wonderful_ feeling, isn’t it?”

“Yes… I thought I was dead… no, worse than dead…” he said. He looked at his hand, and marveled at how _real_ it was.

“Hm, so even a simple-minded maggot like you can be so… eloquent.” She laughed, and it was a wonderful sound, sending a fresh wave of pain and fear through his body. She leaned forward, closer to him, and as she adjusted her seat, the chains on her jacket sounded, making the hairs at the back of his neck stand in attention.

Her hand came down swiftly. The sound of the strike resonated well before the sting of his skin jolted his brain awake.

It hurt. But he wanted more. He needed to wake up, to feel real. He looked up at her, his eyes just _begging,_ please, to do that again.

“Remember this feeling well, Main Character.” Mint-coloured eyes looked straight into his own… what was the color of his eyes again? “You could have been less than nothing--you probably still are--but it’s thanks to the Saviour that you’re here, breathing the same air as me. So I wonder what you could possibly do in return.”

He’s lucky. He’s lucky to be alive right now. And it was thanks to the Saviour.

She took her shoe off. Her bare skin, smooth as porcelain, shone under the moonlight streaming through the windows. The glow of the flowers below could barely compare.

Without another word, he crawled to her, his worthless chapped-up lips scratching the soft skin of the soles. He inhaled her scent, and the image of a beautiful, innocent garden came into his mind.

The number in his heart struggled and struggled to reach the surface, but it wouldn’t. Not now. Keep it to the side for now, savor this feeling first, this pain, this pleasure, this ragged air going through his lungs, this feeling of _somethingness_ and _reality_ and _paradise_ all around him--

She smirked from above him, satisfaction plain in her face, and once more he felt _alive._ “You’re finally ready. Come on, let’s get the party started.”

In his hand, he felt the heavy weight of the smartphone within. Instinctively, though he barely remembered his own name, he somehow knew what he had to do.

* * *

 

If it were a different day, Yookyung Kim would have been more amazed at finally being able to see where Seven lived. After all, in the not-so-distant past, one that she barely remembered, she had begged the redhead to let her borrow her gaming set-up so she could play LOLOL when her own laptop gave up on her from overuse. Back then, the hacker had refused, telling her that she couldn’t possibly compromise the location of her ‘secret lair, where all her secret secrets were secretly kept secret,’ and then it was too much trouble to bother her about it.

But then, this was not a different day. Yookyung wanted to laugh at how senseless and irresponsible she was before, for wasting her life away playing games and endlessly mourning for Ryung when all this-- _all this--_ was happening under her nose.

The woman called Vanderwood was there when the doctors told her that she could be sent home with antibiotics. She contacted Seven briefly, and decided that her bunker was the safest place for them to stay put. She had the college student pull her signature blue hoodie up and cover her face with a mask before shoving a helmet over her head, throwing her on a motorcycle, and zooming out of the hospital and into an undisclosed location in the speed of light.

It took some time and a lot of tests before they were able to break in. Yookyung barely registered the screens and computers and high-tech toys strewn about, alongside abandoned clothes and bottles of cola and bags of chips. Vanderwood was already clicking her tongue, cursing at the brat who shed her clothes like a snake, and picking up all the trash. “Stay there while I take care of this.”

Obediently, she sat on the couch in the middle of the living room. Immediately, the phone in her hoodie’s pocket vibrated to the sound of a new chatroom opening.

“I know that sound.” Ever sharp, Vanderwood turned to her questioningly. “That’s the RFA App, isn’t it? Aren’t you getting that?”

“I don’t feel like it,” she mumbled, looking down at her scuffed sneakers. “Maybe you should talk to them instead, Ms. Vanderwood. They might be worried about us.”

The agent sighed and fumbled for her phone inside a secret pocket. She paused. “Hm. There isn’t one… Maybe it’s a private message?”

Yookyung glanced at her phone. No, it was definitely a chatroom, and it rang once more. Was there a feature that only allowed other users to log on?

Or could it be…

Heart pounding, the young blonde unlocked her phone and opened the chatroom. She felt Vanderwood peek behind her shoulder. Instantly, the familiar dark background of the RFA Chatroom broke into a glitched, broken image, and she knew that it was _her_ doing again.

Except… the person who messaged her wasn’t one that she ever expected.

 

_Yookyung <3 has entered the chatroom. _ __  
_ _ _MC has entered the chatroom._

MC: Hey supergirl!  
MC: it took you long enough :)  
MC: Listen to what I’m about to say carefully, okay?

 

_MC...?_

She watched in horror as the next words floated on her screen, barely noticing Vanderwood's curse or the way her fingers shook over her phone.

_What do I do... what do I do?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm beck! D: I cannot believe! But the story is back once more!  
> If you're still here, thank you for patiently waiting, and thank you for still reading. :) I cannot claim to be more regular with my next updates, but I am working very hard to keep this story going!  
> I think it's obvious that I watched Hamilton sometime during my tumultuous hiatus lol. Can't get enough of it


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